






















































































































































*f> 















.- A 



.0 o. 
























































































The Spirit Pool, Clifton 



In this pool, according to the Indian tradition, a Shawnee maiden, in love 
with in Indian youth, drowned herself long ago. Thereafter, it was said, those 
who visited the pool, mighl frequeutlj hear her sobbing and calling in the night. 



GREENE COUNTY 

1803— 1908. 



EDITED BY 
A COMMITTEE OF THE HOM] 
COMING ASSOCIA HON. 



XENIA. OHIO 

THE ALDINE PUBLISHING HOUSE. 

1908 



(LtBRARY of CONGRESS 1 
I iwu Copies - 
AUG 31 iy08 

0U\6S> O- *Ac Nu. 
JOPY *. 



COPYRIGHT. 1908. 
BY AUSTIN M. PATTERSON 



DRAWINGS AND COVER DESIGN BY JOHN DAVIDSON 
BINDING BY W F LINSCOTT a CO 



ahr txilrs 
lHl]n lank bark hritb affrrtimt 
In tlir nln (Stems (Cmmtu luunr 
Hits bimk ia iirJiiratcn. 



FOREWORD. 

No one could be more conscious of the shortcomings of this 
book than the Committee which has labored to prepare it. It is 
perhaps inevitable that with so large a subject and so short a 
time for preparing the material many things should be omitted 
that might properly have found place, and certain seetions and 
interests suffer in comparison with others. We dan but regret 
that this is so. 

We may at least take satisfaction in the thought that the 
hook is thoroughly a Greene County product. The eontributors 
are all residents or ex-residents who have written specially for 
this purpose, and all of the artistic and mechanical work has 
been done in the county with the single exception of the engrav- 
ing. The photographs, except when taken by members of the 
Committee, have been credited as tar as possible to their makers. 
While it is hoped that the book will more than pay expenses, 
the object in preparing it has been, not to make money for the 
Home Coming, but to produce at a modest price a lasting 
memento of what promises to be a most interesting event in the 
history of the county — the first general return of former residents. 
The historical sketch of the county embodies much original 
work, yet it is necessarily based on the older histories, the debt 
to which is herewith gratefully acknowledged. Acknowledgments 
should also be made to the large number of persons who have 
assisted the Committee, either as eontributors or as representa- 
tives or in other ways. The hearty response met with in most 
eases where help was sought will he one of the' plcasantest 
memories of our labors. 

Austin McDowell Patterson, Chairman, 

Alice Galloway Eavey, 

DeEtta Greiner Wilson. 

John M. Davidson, 

Marshall I>. Lupton. 
Xenia, August, L908. 



CONTENTS. 



Foreword 

Country Bred. A Poem. . . . Ridgely Torrence 
A Reminiscence . . . Henry M. MacCracken 

The Old "Female Seminary" Helen Ekin Starrett 
The Dear Old Places. A Poem . Amos R. Wells 

The Original People of the 

County . . . Warren K. Moorehead 

A Historical Sketch of Greene 

County . . . DeEtta Greiner Wilson 

Some of the Men who have made 



Greene County 
Massik's Creek. A Poem . 
A Description of the County 

Bath 

Beaver Creek 

Caesar's Creek 

Cedarville 

Jefferson 

Miami. Yellow Springs 
Clifton 

New Jasper 

Ross 

Silver Creek 

Spring Valley 

Sugar Creek 

Xenia .... 

Xenia City 
Greene, the Champion Live-stoc 
Antioch College 
Cedarville College . 
The 0. S. t \: S. ( ). Home 
wllberforce university 
Xenia Theological Seminar-s 
Organization of the Greene Count 

Home Coming Association 
Views of Business Houses, etc. 

vi 



. J. F. Orr 
Wilijur D. Nesp.it 
ni) its Townships 

H. B. Belmer 



F. A. Jurkat 

C. H. Eelis 
D. E. Spaiir 



James R. Half 



"Hoke" Smith 

k County, 0. E. Bradfutf 

John M. Davidson 

F. A. Jurkat 

R. E. Barnes 

J. II. Jones 

W. G. Moorehead 

"Y 



PAGE. 
V 
1 
3 

7 
13 

15 

32 

TI- 
TS 
SI 
89 
03 
!>T 
97 
10] 
103 
115 
IIS 
120 
120 
121 
1 20 
131 
135 
1 60 
163 
16T 
1T1 
1T0 
1ST 

190 
193 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Spirit Pool, Clifton. ( Painting) .... Frontispiece 

( )ld Female Seminary 6 

Clifton Road at Wilberforce. (Drawing) 12 

Indian Riffle. (Drawing) 14- 

Prehistorie Remains 18 

Ancient Work near Cedarville. (Map) 19 

Memorial Stone at Old town 27 

Scenes at Old town 30 

Kenton's Tree 31 

The Old Court House 38 

Court House Group 48 

Xenia Public Library {Photo by W. P. McKay) 57 

Xenia Female College 60 

The Court House (IT 

Map of Greene County 80 

Cedarville Cliffs: The Falls from Above. (Drawing) 82 

Cedarville Cliffs: The Pass. (Drawing) 83 

Cedarville Cliffs: Tickling Rock. (Drawing) 84 

Some County Institutions 86 

Cedarville Cliffs: The Rapids. (Drawing) 87 

Scenes in Fairfield 88 

The Little Miami and Mad Rivers 90 

Scenes in Osborn 02 

Zimmerman, Shoups, Alpha, and Union School House 94 

New Jasper and Paintersville 96 

Scenes in Cedarville OS 

Scenes in Cedarville ll)() 

Scenes in Bowersville 102 

vii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Whitehall 

The Little Miami above Yellow Springs. (Drawing-) 

The Glen at Yellow Springs 

On the Little Miami Terrace above Yellow Springs. ( Drawing 

See nes in Yellow Springs 

Scenes at Clifton .... 

Steamboat Rock, Clifton 

Scenes in Ross Township 

Scenes in Jamestown . 

Scenes in Jamestown . 

Scenes in Spring Valley 

Scenes in Bellbrook 

The Old Tavern, Bellbrook. [Drawing) 

Andrews' Ford and Bonner's Lily Pond 

Street Scenes in Xenia 

Some of Xenia's School Buildings 

Xenia Churches 

Xenia Churches 

Catholic Church, Xenia 

Y. M. C. A. Building, Xenia . 

Scenes in Xenia 

Indian Riffle Bridge. (Drawing) 
Antioch College. (Drawing) . 

Cedarville College 

Carnegie Library, Cedarville College .... 

The Administration Building, 0. S and S. 0. Home 

The Row of Cottages, (). S. and S. (). Home . 

The Back Lawn, (). S. and S. 0. Home 

Marching to School, ( >. S. and S. ( ). Home 

The Front Lawn, 0. S. and S. 0. Home 

McDowell Lake, 0. S. and S. 0. Home. {Photo by Jesse Clark 

James A. Shorter Hall, Wilberforce 

0'Neil Hall, Wilberforce . 

Join, G. Mitchell Hall, Wilberforce 

Galloway Hall, ilberforce .... ... 

Xenia Theological Seminary, the New Building 



PAGE 

104 
106 
108 
110 
112 
114 
117 
119 
121 
1 23 
1 25 
128 
182 
136 
139 
145 
14S 
1 51 » 
151 
1 53 
1 58 
162 
164 
168 
169 
170 
172 
17+ 
176 
177 
17S 
180 
182 
. 1ST 
186 
188 



VIEWS OF PRIVATE BUSINESS 
CONCERNS. 



The Xenia National Bank 

Citizens National Bank 

The Commercial & Savings Bank 

The Peoples Building cc Savings Co. 

Hutchison <S: Gibney . 

Sayre & Hemphill Drug Store 

The McDowell «S: Torrence Lumber Co 

The Dodds Apartments 

R. M. Smart . 

H. E. Schmidt & Co 

European Hotel 

Jobe Brothers & Co 

Nesbitt & Weaver 

Haller, Haines & Eliggins 

The J. P. Bocklett Supply Co. 

Koch's Sample Shoe Store 

John T. Barnett & Co. 

F. J. II. Schell . . 

The Xenia Water Co . 

Downing's Art Studio 

The Sutton Music Store 

Arbogust & Co. . 

II. II. Thrall, Druggisl 

I >onges' I >rug Store 

Robert II. Snead . 

L. S. Barnes <.V Co. 

Keves cV Xeshitt . 



P m. i: 

193 

194- 
P.).-. 
PIC 
P»7 
1 OS 
199 
L'l li i 
201 
202 
203 
204 
2< »5 
206 
207 
2( »s 
209 
210 
211 
21 2 
21.", 
21 1 
214 
215 
215 
210 
216 



VIEWS OF PRIVATE BUSINESS 
CONCERNS. 



Ida S. Sinz 

Kany, the Tailor . 

John A. North 

The Central Electric Su] 

Baldner & Fletcher 

Osterly Millinery . 

W. (). Maddux <.\: Co. 

Johnson & Dean 

S. P.. LeSourd & Co . 

I\. S. Kingsbury . 

C. S. Frazer 

E. IT. Hunt . . . 

Frank I'.. Scott . 

Wright i\: Carruthers 

Thomas M. Moore 

C. C. Hemic . 

George W. Slusher 

Oak Lawn Farm 



lv C 



217 
217 
21 S 
21 s 
210 
219 
22(1 
220 
221 
221 
222 
222 
228 
223 
221 
221 
225 
220 



COUNTRY BRED. 

IX NEW YORK. 

RIDGELY TORRENCE. 

Where the sister rivers meet the deep sen daughters 

With the tidal sieve 

Dwell the careless livers by the writers, 

Dying as they live. 

Theirs is not the gladness of the pleasant places 

On the ancient beach 

But the citv's madness in their faces 

Pales from each to each. 

Theirs is not the trouble of the solemn meadows 

And the sacred rain 

But to find the bubble in the shadows 

And to lose again. 

Thev are cruel seekers, they are restless movers 
And their feet digress 

From their mighty speakers and their lovers 
Into senselessness. 

I am sick of striving, I am tired of hoping 
And my pulses cry 

For a hillside hiving bees and sloping 
Into quiet sky. 

'flint's the hill that bore me, there I watch the grasses 

In my fathers' keep. 

All thev knew before me gently passes 

In the winds of sleep. 

There the sounds are slender, there the Dreamer growing 

With the song he sings 

Smiles to find the tender evening glowing 

With a look of wings. 



A REMINISCENCE, 



A REMINISCENCE. 



CHANCELLOR HENRY M. MCCRACKEN. 




T is more than half a century since I 
was told by my father the story of his 
making his way on foot to Greene 
County as a young man from the home 
3 of my grandfather, who was known as 
Squire John MacCracken, of Butler 
County, Ohio. My grandfather had 
been told by Judge Burnet of Cincin- 
nati, after whom the Burnet House 
was named, that he would give him 
for his I hitler County land as much of the Burnet unimproved 
land in Greene County as he might select as a fair equivalent. 
My father, John Steele MacCracken. with his older brother, 
Samuel Wilson MacCracken, and a young man who afterwards 
became their brother-in-law, .Mark McMaken (who died less than 
ten years since in Hamilton, Ohio, in the one hundredth year of 
his life) came on foot from Butler County up to Greene County. 
The)' selected certain parcels of the land belonging to Judge 
Burnet. The principal parcel was a .section or more in Beaver 
(reek Township, four miles west of Xenia. The three young 
men returned and reported their choice of lands. The grand- 
father doubted if Judge Burnet would consent to give so large 
an acreage for the little farm in Butler County. But the Judge 
agreed to the proposed trade without the slightesl hesitation. The 
young men returned to Greene County with their axes, cleared 
many acres of land and hnilded a house of hewn logs, a part of 
which is still upon the Henry Ankeny farm near the hanks of 
Beaver Creek. 



4 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

Mv father, born in the year 1804. more than once pointed me 
to a pleasant knoll overlooking the Beaver Creek Valley and said: 
"My older brother Samuel and I sat there upon a fence which we 
had builded and debated whether we could not then afford to 
leave farming, begin to prepare ourselves for college and go 
through the college course id" four years and the Theological 
Seminary in order to he ministers according to the ordinary 
Presbyterian requirements. We then and there declared to one 
another that we would make the attempt." The farm and old 
folks were left behind in the care of a younger brother while 
the two older brothers began the battle for education. They and 
their parents were all connected with what is now known as the 
First United Presbyterian Church of Xenia, Ohio, but which was 
then known as the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian 
Church of Xenia. My grandfather. Squire John MacCracken, 
was a ruling elder in this church and remained so until his death. 
A notable resolve of my father was to keep the land which was 
his upon Beaver Creek to fall back upon if at any time he should 
require it. Aided by the productiveness of his Beaver Creek 
farm he was able to give to his children a liberal education with- 
out the hardship which had been encountered by those in pioneer 
times in order to make their way. 

My own individual recollection of Xenia begins with my 
father who was then a pioneer preacher in Hardin County about 
sixty years ago, bringing me, a boy of about eight years of age, to 
attend the meeting of Synod in this city. We were entertained 
by a Mr. Gowdy, father of Rev. George Gowdy, who lived upon 
Main Street, in whose house then and there 1 saw what seemed to 
me the most beautiful bit of architecture I bad ever known, 
namely, a marble mantlepiece. Such a thing did not exist in the 
town or in the count}- where mv father had preached since the 
time 1 was three years old. Ah- boyish recollection continued to 
i herish Xenia as a notable city builded largely of brick and of 
stone when so man)- county towns of Ohio had only houses of 
Frame or even of logs. It may have been on this same visit to 
Xenia or possibly an earlier one when 1 had my first sight of a 
locomotive, the Little Miami road having just been opened north 



A REMINISCENCE 

as far as Xenia. At that time the road to Columbus bad not been 
built. 1 recollect my especial interest when told that the loco 
motive was going down to take in water and how I needed to 
have my notion corrected that it had to Imd its way down into 
the water of Shawnee ('reek in order to get a sufficient supply. 

Greene County and Xenia were my own home for barely 
two years, from 1859 until 1861, during which period 1 was a 
student in the Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian 
Church, occupying, however, the most of my time the first year 
as an instructor of classes, particularly in the classics, in the 
Xenia High School. I have always counted it a privilege that I 
was contemporary there with Dr. William G. Moorehead and 
other students who have made their impression upon the church 
of their generation. My recollections of those two years in Xenia 
just before and after the beginning of the great Civil War. are 
of a community of high intelligence, earnest religious life and 
devoted patriotic spirit. 

May I be permitted, while not forgetting the share that people 
of various races have taken in the making of Xenia and Greene 
County, to emphasize the large contributions made to her history 
by the Scotch and Scotch-Irish. United Presbyterians came 
originally entirely from Scotland or the north of Ireland. The 
Scotch-Irish furnished half of the Presbyterians of every name 
in the United States. 

There are three gravestones oul yonder in the Xenia cemetery 
which I have ever remembered as expressing the profound, relig- 
ious conviction of those Scotch and Scotch- Irish Presbyterians 
who have gone forth from Greene County to serve their fellow 
men. They are placed over the graves of the Covenanter Gilbert 
McMaster, and his two Presbyterian sons, all eminent doctors of 
the Church; and on the firsl I read. "God, thou art my God;" on 
the second. " Jehovah-Jireh ;" on the third, "] will go unto God, 
my exceeding joy;" and that is Calvinism in the warm heart and 
the educated brain of the Scotch Irish. God is his God. lie 
trusts Him to provide everything and to solve mysteries. Exist- 
ence is an eternal friendship, an approaching nearer and more 
near to his exceeding joy. 



6 GREENE COUNTY L803-1908. 

This depth of faith, joined with strength of intellect and saving 
common sense, has done more than all else to make many sons and 
daughters of Greene County oi some value to their country and 
tn the world. 




THE OLD " FEMALE SEMINARY." 



THE OLD "FEMALE SEMINARY." 



THE OLD "FEMALE SEMINARY." 



HELEN EKIN STARRETT. 



J 




-<Sc. - 



LJRELY one of the most interesting his- 
toric buildings in Xenia is the present 

dormitory of the Theological Seminary 
on Third Street, but known, prior to 
and in the sixties, as "Mrs. Hanna's 
Seminar)-." Built by that noble foun- 
der of the Washington Female Semi- 
nar)- in the then little town of Wash- 
ington, Pa., in the days of the first 
beginnings of the "higher education for 
women,' it had for some reason unknown to me proven so com- 
pletely a financial failure that Mrs. Hanna had closed it ; and in 
1860 it stood, a hue, almost new building, with boarded-up doors 
and windows, a surprise to every stranger who visited Xenia. 

The year of 1860 saw thousands of returning northerners 
(locking back from the South after the war had been — greatly to 
their astonishment — actually declared. Among those who left 
loved homes and occupations in the beautiful southern land, was 
the family of my father, Rev. John Ekin, D. D., who had gone to 
the South (originally for his health) as pastor of a congregation 
in Louisiana. Three of his daughters were teachers in the South, 
and when it was suddenly found that all must return to the North, 
or share the fortunes of the Confederacy, it was regarded by my 
father as a special favoring Providence that his "old familiar 
friend," Rev. R. D. Harper, then pastor of the First United Pres- 
byterian Church of Xenia, should write to him suggesting that 
the family take the vacant and boarded-up school building and 
open anew a "Female Seminary." 



8 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

Suffice it to say the invitation was gladly accepted. Three 
daughters of us came first to open the building. It is illustrative 
of the simple, primitive customs of those days that we three with- 
out the aid of any servant, cleaned the building from top to bot- 
tom, washed the windows and scrubbed the floors, laid in provis- 
ions and prepared to receive the rest of the family, and felt that 
we had the approbation of all the citizens in so doing. In fact, 1 
think it helped to give us the reputation that afterwards enabled 
us, jointly, to build up a successful school and provided us all 
with a lovely and comfortable home during the vicissitudes of 
war times. 1 may add as farther illustrating the financial and 
social conditions of those days that when our freight and traveling 
expenses were paid and we were settled in our new home, my 
father had left just $50 in gold. At the end of the school year 
we still had one $5 gold piece left of that money. 

In those school-rooms were gathered, during the five or six 
years of our occupancy, a bevy of lovely, rosy-cheeked girls, some 
of whom are still with us, while many have answered the heavenly 
roll call. Their married names I do not know, but I remember 
them as Ella Harper, Jennie and Emma Milieu, Julia Barr, Chessie 
Reid, Anna MacCracken, Chrissie Moody, Mattie Leaman, Re- 
becca Jacoby, Mattie Allison, Fanny Smart, Sallie McDowell, 
and the Paul sisters. Hettie Williamson, one of the pupils, was 
a beautiful girl, who created a great sensation in the school by her 
sudden marriage to Rev. W. C. McNary. It is a great distinction 
for a school girl to get married, especially to a preacher. Chessie 
Reid's distinguished brother, Whitelaw Reid, I remember as a tall 
sunburned youth, walking the streets of Xenia, who was pointed 
out to us as the "reporter" for the Xenia Gazette, of whom we 
had better stand a little in awe, as he was not afraid to make 
critical personal remarks in his paper. After we became better 
acquainted with "Miss Chessie," our fear of him was not so 
potent, as we felt sure of her kindly interest in our behalf. Anna 
MacCracken, too, had a brother, a preacher, which was quite a 
distinction for her, and very justly; for that brother has been for 
many years Chancellor MacCracken of the great New York Uni- 
versity. I consider it quite a distinction myself to be able to say 



THE OLD "FEMALE SEMINARY." 9 

that I heard him preach in Dr. Findley's Church his first sermon 
after he was licensed to preach. I remember the text: "In the 
beginning was the Word," and to this day L remember well some 
of the excellent points of the sermon. 

Next to our pupils our greatest interest was in the Theo- 
logical Seminary. What a fine body of strong, vigorous, aide 
young men gathered within those plain walls in the early sixties ! 
We were all young together then, and as the "theologues" usually 
called each other by their first names, we learned to think of them 
as Joe and Will Clokey, Jack McMichael, Matt. Gibson, Pollock 
McNary, and others. Every one of these who remain with us is 
now a gray-haired Doctor of Divinity. However serious they 
might be in their studies during the daytime, they were certaiidy 
fond of fun in the evening. Dancing was not included in their 
modes of entertainment, but in those good old days of simplicity 
and good fellowship, we could all enjoy such games as "Going to 
Jerusalem," "The Stage Coach," "Twenty Questions," "Cha- 
rades," etc. One of the innovations of the times then was 
"Tableaux," and I well remember how astonished and even scan- 
dalized some of the good old United Presbyterians were when, 
through the good offices of the theological students, the "Female 
Seminary" girls were allowed the use of their Hall for a public 
exhibition of a very fine set of living Tableaux — an entertainment 
that proved so popular that it was repeated two evenings with 
undiminished audiences. 

Besides the Theological "set," there was another "set" of 
young people, and between them the distinction was sharply drawn 
although it was not a "class distinction," and each was very 
friendly to the other. The second set danced at parties, went off 
on summer excursions, drove good horses, dressed in the latest 
style, gave afternoon teas and evening receptions, and had a good 
time of their own generally. Of these I remember Sam Allison 
and Matt. Allison, his nephew (who afterwards became my 
brother-in-law) ; Sam Ewing, who with his dainty clothes and 
equally dainty manners was for us "the glass of fashion and the 
mould of form" ; Mr. and Mrs. Merrick and Mrs. Merrick's sister; 
Mrs. Trotter and her daughter, Miss Lily Trotter, and her niece, 



10 GREENE COUNTY 180.3-1908. 

Miss Julia Myers; the Aliens, the Boyds, Daniel McMillan and 
family, Mary Alexander, the Drakes, the Ankeneys, all of whom 
belonged to this set. All were good church goers, and the moral 
aid religious tone of society was distinctly high — as is always the 
case when the good old United Presbyterians are in the ascendant 
in the community, as they were in Xenia. 

When it was fully realized that the War was a dread reality, 
—its scenes being especially brought home to us by the vivid and 
eloquent letters of the soon-to-be famous war correspondent of 
the Cincinnati Gazette, Whitelaw Reid, — the social life of the 
town began to center in the Soldiers' Aid Societies, which general- 
ly met in the churches. What stores of preserved and canned 
fruits, what gallons of grape juice and home-made wines, what 
bundles of lint and bandages, what dozens of hand-knit socks 
and mittens went from the hands of the good women of Xenia, 
die records of the Sanitary Commission will tell. And then, 
when some of our neighbors were wounded or taken prisoners, 
when some languished in Libbey Prison and even in Anderson- 
ville, every heart was touched and the people of Xenia were 
drawn together in a new bond of fellowship. 

Xenia had a taste of the realities of war to the extent of 
being greatly alarmed by a report that Ouantrell was planning a 
raid through that part of Ohio. The Home Guard was called 
out and practiced military maneuvers; many citizens hid their 
valuables, money and silver by burying them, putting them in 
wells, etc. In our home the bricks of the back parlor hearth were 
lifted, a deep hole excavated, and all the solid silver spoons, the 
live dollar gold pieces and the family daguerreotypes were safely 
buried. It was quite exciting and made us feel that we, too, were 
helping to save the country. 

( hie incident of the war many of the then young people will 
remember. A Division of the Army (of the Potomac, I think) 
was to be moved and the soldiers passed through Xenia, being 
transported mainly on freight cars. They were in command of 
I ienerals I looker and Butterfield. The Xenians sent an invitation 
that they should stop for a good "square meal," and the invitation 
was accepted. Oh, the preparations that were made to give the 



TUB OLD "FEMALE SEMINARY." 11 

soldier boys a royal breakfast, for they would arrive in the morn- 
ing', ddie chickens and turkeys and fatted calves in the surround- 
ing country were thinned out even mere effectually than for a 
ministerial convocation. Lakes, pes. and delicious home-made 
bread arrived by wagon loads in great clothes baskets. En rhe 
old Female Seminary one of the younger daughters arose at four 
o'clock in the morning and by eight o'clock had baked one hundred 
and forty-four dozen of light baking powder biscuits, besides 
denuding the store room of the winter's supply of winesap apples. 
All were at the train in season, and every soldier had all he could 
possibly eat, besides carrying away with him one or two days' 
rations. A coterie of the Xenia girls aroused the envy of those 
who had not thought of doing so themselves, by giving away to 
the soldiers unnumbered dozens of handkerchiefs with the names 
of the donors in the corners. 

So there were sad as well as glad days for the inmates of the 
Xenia Female Seminary during the war time, as there were for all 
the citizens of Xenia. I remember being deeply impressed once 
by hearing" a gray-haired woman declare that the days of the war 
were the best days of my life, all because she had found a work 
worthy of her ambitions and her energies which hail previously 
been expended on the every day duties of a farm not far from 
Xenia. 

These are some of the memories and reminiscences that 
crowd upon my mind as I accept with pleasure the invitation of 
the Committee to furnish a short paper for the Home Coming of 
Nineteen Hundred and Eight. 

Tin' Starrett School for Girls, Chicago. 




Drawing fr.„„ photo by Dr. Hewitt. CLIFT0N R0AD ^ WILBEEFORCE. 



TIIH DEAR OLD PLACES; 13 



THE DEAR OLD PLACES. 



AMOS R. WELLS. 

What is the charm of the dear old places, 

Haunts and home that my boyhood knew? 

Is it the woodland's remembered graces? 
Is it the held where the clover grew 

Is it the glen with its cool recesses? 

Is it the upland ranging far? 
Is it the brook and the water-cresses? 

Is it the cows at the meadow-bar? 

No, it is nothing of nature's glories 

Gleaming fair on the gladdened eye, 

None of the bright year's picture stories 
Moves my heart to a smile or sigh. 

No; but this in the dear old places 
Stirs my spirit when all is said: 

Just the vision of vanished faces, 
just the echo of voices dead. 




INDIAN' HIFFLE. 



Till-; ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 



THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 

WARREN K. MOOREHEAD, 
Curator of tin- Peabodv Museum 




I. PREHIST( )RIC MEN. 

k El I I ST( )RIC man in < Ireene 
(Urn. v left pr< tbably r»( ) i ir 70 
monuments of which II are 
clearly seen al the present clay. 
The historic period — thai of 
i e Shawanoes, or Shawnees, 
at ( )ld Town, then ( )ld Chilli- 
c< he — did not embrace any of 
-;■ re nains. The Shaw a 
m • bvried i i i »rdinary graves 
an i confine ! their village t< i 
the little- plat. -an south of the 
gravel hills flanking ( >ld Town 
Run. The prehistoric people lived on Caesar's Creek, Massis's 
( reek, Old Town Rvn, and the Little Miami River. 

Whether glacial or pre-glacial man lived in Greene County 
is a debatable question. In fact, scientists are divided into two 
schools on the whole question of glacial man in America. Then 
are those who believe that the discoveries in the gravels at Tren- 
ton, X. J., Wilmington, Del., Madisonville and Newcomerstown, 
< )hio, and in Nebraska and elsewhere are indicative of a human 
culture extending hack 30,CO0 or 10,000 years. Against this 
proposition are most of the Smithsonian scientists and several 
leading geologists who do not believe thai the evidence warrants 
any such conclusion. Although some rough implements were 
found by me in ( )ld Town Run many years ago and, at the time, 
thought by Dr. Thomas Wilson of the Smithsonian to be paleo- 



16 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

lithic in character, yet it is not established that glacial man lived 
in ( rreene County. 

Coming down to more recent times and accepting observa- 
tions and explorations as trustworthy, we observe that the earli- 
est man in Greene County probably buried his dead in natural 
formations, which appeared moundlike in character. It is quite 
likely that lie selected glacial kames and knolls, rounded by the 
action of the elements during thousands of years; and because 
digging in this way was easy, he placed his dead in shallow graves 
upon these graceful summits. When gravel pits were opened in 
Greene, Fayette, Warren and Clinton Comities, it was no uncom- 
mon thing to find human remains therein, and alongside such 
human remains lay types of crude implements somewhat different 
from those found in mounds and upon the village sites. There 
fore, 1 have believed that in ( )hio we had not only tribes which 
built mounds, but also an earlier people, although not necessarily 
a people of great antiquity — that is, great compared with the age 
of the glacial epoch. 

These early people found game very plentiful, the winters 
not severe and life on the whole not a desperate struggle for 
existence such as characterized tribes in Canada and upon the 
headwaters of the Columbia and Missouri. 

'Idle buffalo roamed throughout central and southern Ohio, 
Kentucky and Indiana and as late as 1760 buffalo were killed by 
Captain James Smith, long a captive among the Indians. Buffalo 
hones have not been found in village sites in Greene County but 
they were exhumed from ash-pits at Fort Ancient and at Mad 
isonville. 

Accustomed as we are to innumerable luxuries, regarding 
die high development of the 20th century as a matter of course 
and forgetting the millenniums through which man was slowly 
toiling upwards, we cannot understand how the American ab- 
origine achieved what he did. lie had no metal, save a limited 
supply of copper in a few isolated centers. All his art, manufac- 
turing, building, etc., must be accomplished by the use of stone, 
hone and shell tools. The Indian was more ingenious and saving 
than are we. lie made use of such material as he could find. 



THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 17 

His textile fabrics — whether baskets or blankets, — his elaborate 
pipes, his skilfully made bows were all worked out of raw mate- 
rial by band. It seems incredible to us that he accomplished his 
work with such tools as the flint drills, the bone awls, the tlint 
saws and the hammerstones that we find in every collection in 
Greene County. But one must not forget that the Indian had 
great capabilities. The Indian brain is finer than that oi the 
Negro and his skeletal structure is also of a higher order. 

The mound building, to which he was given, extended 
throughout the entire Mississippi valley. While there are some 
mounds in China and a few elsewhere in the world, yet mound 
building was not practiced largely save among American tribes. 

Reference to the archaeological ma]> of Greene County here- 
with 'presented will show the distribution of mounds, village sites 
and the earthworks. From the character of the earthworks it 
is to be supposed that they are defensive. The mounds were for 
burials exclusively. The method of mound construction was sim- 
ple. Natives selected a level spot of ground, well situated, pref- 
erably near a stream and commanding the surrounding country. 
They burned off the grass and shrubs and beat the surface until 
it was level. On these hard burned floors they placed the bodies 
of their dead with various implements, ornaments, etc., and over 
the interment heaped a large mass of earth. The earth was car- 
ried in baskets and skin bags, as is clearly shown by the different 
lens-shaped masses averaging about half a bushel in quantity. 
Shortly after the mound was constructed, grass began to grow 
and then the monument became more indestructible than imposing 
structures of stone or brick. A simple mound of earth outlasts 
any other work erected by man. 

Nearest to Xenia of all the works in the county is the circle 
on Old Town Run, two miles northeast. Unfortunately I do not 
recall the name of the gentleman on whose land it lies, but it may 
easily be found. Within the enclosure is a small mound. It is 
quite evident that circles were erected as sun symbols, and some- 
times as symbols of the universe. The square represented the 
earth, or the four winds, or the four cardinal points. 

West of Xenia is a large mound on the land of Mr. John 

♦See the article " A Description of the County and Its Twnships. ' ' 




PREHISTORIC REMAINS. 

,. Mound on i ln> Lucas Farm. 

Mound near < 'edarviJ le. 

The Spring Valley Mound. 
.The two lower pictures were taker al the "ancienl work" described in the article- 
"" "'" •"' u mbankment"; the other of the " ancient channel" from point G. 



THE OKKHNAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY 



L9 



B. Lucas, which was opened about 15 years ago by Messrs. 
George Day and Clifford Anderson. The burials in this mound 
presented two types, the ordinary interment and the cremated 
skeletons. Curious tubular pipes, flat tablet-shaped ornaments of 



slate, the war hatchets, large flint knives, copper 
problematical forms were found with the skeleton. 



iracelets and 




Sc-ALE 

toft. lott«I'"T>. 



ANCIENT WORK 

Crrrrir Co., Ohio 
sins*- I ■«■ "ille. Siii /. yar 



The largest ancient fortification of Greene County is at 
Cedarville Cliffs. Messrs. Squier and Davis, the pioneers of 
American archaeology, in their famous publication "Ancient Mon- 
uments of the Mississippi Valley" (1848), being the first work 
issued by the Smithsonian Institution, present a map of this work 
which is herewith reproduced. I quote from their original descrip 
ti< m. 

"It is situated on Massie's Creek, a tributary of the Little 
Miami River, seven miles east from the town of Xenia, Greene 
Comity, ( )hio; and consists of a high promontory, bounded on all 
sides, excepting an interval at the west, by a precipitous limestone 
cliff. Across the isthmus, from which the ground gradually sub- 



20 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

sides towards the plain almost as regularly as an artificial glacis, 
is carried a wall of earth and stones. This wall is now ahout ten 
feel high by thirty feet base, and is continued for some distance 
along the edge of the cliff where it is least precipitous, on the 
north. It is interrupted by three narrow- gateways, exterior to 
each of which was formerly a mound of stones, now mostly car- 
ried away. Still exterior to these are four short crescent walls, 
extending across the isthmus. These crescents are rather slight, 
not much exceeding, at the present time, three feet in height. 
The cliff has an average height of upwards of twenty-five feet, 
and is sleep and almost inaccessible. At dd are breaks in the 
limestone, where the declivity is sufficiently gentle to admit of a 
passage on horseback. At E is a fissure in the cliff, where per- 
sons may ascend on foot. The valley, or ravine, CC, is three hun- 
dred feet broad. Massie's creek, a considerable stream, washes 
the base of the promontory on the north. The area bounded by 
the cliff and embankment is not far from twelve acres. The 
whole is covered with the primitive forest. 

"The natural strength of this position is great, and no incon- 
siderable degree of skill has been expended in perfecting its de- 
fences. A palisade, if carried around the brow of the cliff and 
along the summit of the wall, would render it impregnable to sav- 
age assault. About one hundred rods above this work, on the 
opposite side of the creek, is a small circle, two hundred feet in 
diameter, enclosing a mound. About the same distance below, 
upon the same bank, is a large conical mound, thirty feet in height 
and one hundred and forty feet in diameter at the base." 

Messrs. Squier and Davis also illustrated the semi-circular 
embankment and mound lying half a mile south of the work pre- 
viously described. The}- present a diagram of the polygon, seven 
miles north of Xenia on the east bank of the Little Miami river, 
"ine distance below Yellow Springs, ddiese gentlemen refer to 
the mound enclosure by a circle on Old Town Run, two miles 
north of Xenia. At the time their Look was published, the high 
conical-shaped mound below the cliffs (near the Hon. Whitelaw 
keid's house) was something over thirty feet in altitude and one 
hundred and forty feet diameter at the base. In subsequent years 



THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 21 

people from Cedarville have attempted its exploration and the 
height is somewhat reduced and the diameter extended. 

The other mounds are scattered about the county, following 
more or less regularly the water courses. None of them were 
house sites or "lookout stations", but all may be safely classed as 
mortuary tumuli. No stone mounds are to be found in the region 
and artificial terraces common on Caesar's Creek in Warren Coun- 
ty, do not, I think, extend into Greene. If they appear in the 
southwest edge of Greene, I stand corrected. Save at Cedarville, 
no large mound exists in the county. 

There have been, from time to time, persons living in Xenia 
who were interested in archaeology. When I was a boy a picnic 
party was organized to visit Fort Ancient, twenty-two miles south. 
I remember following Judge E. II. Munger and two or three 
other gentlemen who were familiar with Professor Short's "North 
Americans of Antiquity", about the wonderful enclosure and 
listening to their comments. 

Although the monuments, sixty or seventy years ago, were 
much more distinct than at present, yet very few persons in ( )hio 
took any interest in them. The pioneer was Caleb Atwater of 
Circleville, who visited Greene County before 1818. His book. 
"Arehaeologia Americana", was published in 1820 in Worcester, 
Mass. 

Old citizens in Xenia will remember Mr. W. B. Faircbild. 
Of the Xenians of seventy-five years ago, Faircbild was one of 
the most intelligent. I lis interest in science was marked and he 
is mentioned in the first report of the Smithsonian Institution 
several times. Mr. S. T. ( )weins, surveyor of Greene County in 
the early forties, is credited with having made the first accurate 
survey of these interesting monuments. In recent years a number 
of gentlemen residing in or near Xenia have accumulated archaeo 
logical collections. These have a special value to science and 
should be preserved in the Xenia public library, or where they 
will be available to future generations. Perhaps the best exhibit 
of stone art of prehistoric tribes is the collection owned by Mr. 
George Charters. His exhibit comes from Caesar's Creek, Mas 
sie's Creek, Old Town Run and other favorite sites. 



22 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

Particular attention is called to the skill of the Greene County 
natives in the chipping of flint, now a lost art. Some of the 
large spear heads found in Greene County are made of pink and 
white flint brought from the Flint Ridge pits in Licking County, 
nearly a hundred miles distant, and are marvels of skill and 
beauty. ( )n some of the larger ones I have seen depressions 
from which flakes as small as the 32nd of an inch were detached. 
Any prehistoric man was able to make his ordinary arrow-heads, 
but it required a master hand to make a certain kind of spear- 
head which I have named the "sunflsh" pattern because of its 
resemblance in form and color to the large blue and red sunflsh 
of Greene County streams. 

The late Mr. Jacob Ankeney had a large collection of Greene 
< wr.nty specimens. As a boy I used to go to his house and spend 
hours with him in the examination of his treasures. But unfortu- 
nately this collection has become scattered, so it is said. Next to 
Mr. Charters' exhibit in size is that of Mr. George Day. Dr. 
Spahr of Clifton has some hundreds of interesting implements 
relating to primitive art of northern and eastern Greene County, 
and there are a score of smaller exhibits scattered throughout the 
county. These taken as a whole give one a comprehensive 
knowledge of the Stone Age in this region. The tribes do not ap- 
pear to have been sedentary in their habits although they appear f o 
have lived long enough in one place to raise crops of corn, tobacco, 
pumpkins, and beans. Numerous stone pestles attest this. 

So far as we are able to judge, Greene County natives were 
not given to travel or exchange. Aside from Flint Ridge flint, 
all materials were local. They received a little copper from the 
north and a few plates of mica from the south — both dear to 
aboriginal hearts. But the)- did not import ocean shells, and 
pearl beads, and galena, obsidian, and Tennessee flint as did the 
tribes in the Scioto Valley. 

Prehistoric man in Greene County was of what is called 
"Fort Ancient culture," that is, the Fort Ancient culture is totally 
different from the higher culture of the Scioto Valley. The 
tribes of surrounding counties from beyond the Great Miami on 
the west to the headwaters of Paint Creek on the east belong to 



THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 



23 



this same general Fort Ancient stock. It is quite likely that in 
ease of attack by enemies from the north or from the Scioto, they 
retreated to Fort Ancient. Traveling light, as aborigines do when 
in danger, they could reach Fort Ancient from almost any part 
of Greene Count)- in from four to five hours. With the excep- 
tion of the site at Old Town made historic by Kenton, and Boone, 
and Blackfish, and Captain Bowman, all the other places on which 
Indian implements are found in the county art' pre-Columbian. 
Their exact age cannot he determined although it is probable 
that some of them may have been inhabited two or three thousand 
years ago. 

Nothing remains today of prehistoric man in Greene County 
save his mounds and stone artifacts. Civilization has obliterated 
pretty much all else. Yet, it seems to me. that we owe it to 
science — if not to the memory of those red men of the simple 
life — to preserve such of their works as time has vouchsafed to 
us. The notable ones are the enclosure and mound near Cedar 
ville Cliffs. 

The "Cliffs" have been a favorite picnic resort for a century. 
Nothing more picturesque exists in the state. Greene County 
could easily make of the place a park, for the natural beaut)' and 
park conditions are perfect. The expense would he trifling and 
the benefit to the community at large beyond price. Such a place 
as die ' ('lift's" near any city woudl have become a public "nature- 
held" a generation ago. 

The park scheme would properly include the imposing mound 
near Air. Reid's home and the fortification on the bluffs over- 
looking Massie's Creek. Then future generations might exclaim 
with pride : 

"Greene and Licking Counties are the only two of the eight) 
eight that preserved their natural scenery and their antiquities.' 



: J '*''"' -^jj^ffjj ■ 




p- 



w 




24 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

II. THE INDIANS. 

The greatest Indian known in history, Tecumseh, was born 
not far from Xenia in a little cabin on Mad River. As the exact 
local inn is not known, it is possible that he was born somewhere 
near Old Chillicothe (Old Town) in Greene Comity. Be that 
as il may, the authorities give the site of his mother's cabin as 
on Mad River. The village was a small one. the main village 
being at < )ld Town. Tecumseh was a full-blooded Shawano, lie- 
was one of three boys born at the same time. As twins are rare 
among Indians, this incident — being remarkable — carried religious 
significance to the aborigines and Tecumseh became famous even 
in his youth. I lis brother, Els-Kwau-Ta-Waw, was afterwards 
a famous medicine man or shaman and was second in influence 
to Tecumseh. lie is known in history as the Prophet. These 
two remarkable men and their people hunted and fished within 
the confines of Greene County long before any white people had 
settled in the valley of the Little Miami. Tecumseh and his 
brother are better known in American history than many of the 
white men who fought against them and now that we can view 
those troublesome times dispassionately, we have ample evidence 
thai the contentions of Tecumseh were entirely just, right and 
reasonable, and that he was superior in many ways to his white 
C< illtempi iraries. 

There were no Indians in Greene County save the Shawanoes. 
Their original home was in the South, and to escape persecution 
they lied north to the ( )hio, settling in Ross, Pickaway and Greene 
( oimties and later in Indiana. The Delaware's, Mingoes and 
other tribes visited the Shawanoes between 1750 and the war of 
1812. But the Shawano village mentioned was the only perma- 
nent abode of Indians in the county. 

I bis Indian tribe never contained more than 300 fighting men 
in all its villages, yet it engaged the Americans in 22 actions. By 
our own records — which are naturally prejudiced — the Indians 
won thirteen, there were four drawn battles and five defeats. The 
Shawanoes could outfight and outmaneuver, man for man, the 
Iroquois, the Delawares, or the white backwoodsmen. When the 



THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 25 

villages on the Scioto were attacked, the Old Town Indians went 
to their brothers' assistance, and vice versa. In the battle of the 
Thames in winch Tecumseh was killed (October 5th, 1813), if 
Proctor and the British regulars and the other Indian allies had 
stood by Tecumseh, his chance of success would have been very 
favorable. 

The Shawanoes were of the Algonkin stock, intelligent, pro- 
gressive, and very decent Indians. There were some had men 
among them but on the whole they were less given to drunkenness 
and debauchery than the roving backswoodmen about which so 
much fiction has been written. Aside from cruelty, Indians — 
ethnologists now know — had practically no vices. As aborigines 
before they were contaminated by white influence, they ranked 
superior to African and Australian or other aboriginal tribes. Of 
their hospitality, their kindness to captives, and their industry we 
have no end of testimony. They were not naturally hostile to white 
people, but they became embittered for reasons which I have not 
space to set forth in detail. Those who care to follow the subject 
and regard Ohio Valley history from the Indian point of view, 
should consult "The Indian Tribes of ( )hio, 1 [istorically Consider- 
ed", in Vol. VII, Ohio State Archaeological and Historical publi- 
cations. However, a few of the reasons why the Indians of Old 
Town were hostile may be given. 

Silver 1 feels was a favorite chief of the Shawanoes. I le was 
murdered near the ( )hio river by a backwoodsman from Kentucky. 
I draw a distinction between backwoodsmen and pioneers. Back 
woodsmen were responsible for much of the trouble between the 
Indians and the whites. They were ever a lawless class from the 
days of the good missionaries Heckewelder and Zeisberger down 
to the present time and no man who thoroughly understands In- 
dian affairs has a good word for the backwoodsmen. They were 
ever moving, following the frontiers. The type is practically ex- 
tinct today, but in Indian Territory and in a few sections of the 
\\ est is still to be found the man and his family in the ever present 
prairie schooner; moving, moving, eternally moving in the wain 
hopes of bettering his condition. That man is the survival of the 
back-woods type. 



26 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908 

The murder >>i Silver 1 [eels wrought the Shawanoes i >i Frank- 
furt. Ross County, i Lower Chillicothe) and ( >ld Town to a pitch 
of fury. Shortly afterwards another prominent Shawano, out of 
the kindness of his heart, conducted a party of traders from the 
Scioto to Albany, a distance of 500 miles through the wilderness, 
and the gratitude of these men was to shoot him through the right 
lung. The endurance of this Indian passes our comprehension. 
Were the record not made by that truthful missionary, John 
1 leckewelder. we would doubt it. The Indian, traveling -lowly. 
reached the United Brethren settlement on the Muskingum river. 
He \va- still in such condition that I leckewelder says that the rush 
of air through the hole in his lung was audible. The Shawano. 
told I leckewelder that if he could reach Old Town, the Indian 
doctors would cure him. His prediction wa> verified and he lived 
to tight the whites in main - an engagement afterwards. The con- 
stant raids on Old Town, the Mad River towns and the Scioto 
village- by adventurers from Kentucky and Virginia, the failure 
of the white people to keep treaties and the death of that able 
Shawano chief. Cornstalk, who was murdered while on a friendly 
visit with his son to the fort at Port Pleasant — all these things 
were more than Indians could stand. And they did just what we 
would have done under the circumstance-. They entered Ken- 
tucky and Virginia with scalping knife and tomahawk and they 
exacted an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Even so good a 
pioneer as Simon Kenton got into trouble through his own fault. 
lie and Montgomery and another man came to Old Town and 
stole some of the Indians' best horses. On reaching the (Mho 
River they were unable to cross because of high winds, which 
raised wave- and frightened the horses. The Shawanoes killed 
Montgomery and captured Kenton. He was taken to Old Chilli- 
cothe. beaten and compelled to run the gauntlet. In later years 
Kenton was a firm friend of the Shawanoes and he knew- very 
well that bad he not been stealing Indian horses, he would not 
have suffered a- he did. 

It i- not surprising, thereh re. that ( )ld Town was the rendez- 
vous of many war parties and that the names of Tecumseh, the 
Prophet, L'.lackhsh. etc.. became a terror to the white settlements, 



Tin: ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 27 

Daniel Boone during his captivity was well treated. Most of the 
captives after being adopted were treated precisely as Indians. 
When Col. Boquet subdued tbe Shawanoes as far back as 1754. 
more than J00 white people who were in captivity among the 
Indians at the several Chillicothes, including ( )ld Town, were 
brought in by the Indians enamoured of the wild, free life of the 




^-: 



j 3*H,ClHEF. 






Phoio by W. P. McKay. 

MEMORIAL STONE AT OLDTOWN. 

Erected by the Catharine Greene Chapter. Daughters of tlin 
American Revolution, in 1 • 



Indians and did not wish to return to the settlements. Several of 
these captives bad to be bound in order to compel them to return 
Ma-t. On the return trip many of them fled and rejoined tbeir 
Indian friend-, choosing the pleasure- of Indian life rather than 
those oi civilization. 

Tbe Old Town Indians' greatest victories were under tbe 
leadership of Tecumseh. At Harmar's defeat in 1791, Tecumseh 



28 GREENE COI.NTY 1803-1908. 

fled from the field upon seeing his brother fall. The death of his 
brother embittered him against the white people. 

Tecumseh and his warriors set ( )ld Chillicothe on fire on the 
approach of Harmar and fled to Mad River. As llarmar. in spite 
of his large force, had suffered somewhat at the hands of the 
Indians, he "felt desirous of wiping oft" in am idler action the 
disgrace which his arms had sustained." So he halted eight miles 
from Old Town and sent Gen. Hardin with 360 men to find the 
Shawanoes and tight them. Early the next morning Hardin 
found the Indians in great force at the mouth of Mad River where 
his detachment was, as in the case of the first, overwhelmed and 
nearly destroyed. The survivors reached Fort Washington (Cin- 
cinnati. ) The total loss in the 1 larmar expedition must have been 
over 400 men. The Indian loss was trifling. The following year. 
1792, Gen. St. Clair marched against the combined Shawanoes, 
Delawares, Wyandottes and Miamis. St. Clair lost hundreds of 
men. Tecumseh shortly afterwards traveled extensively through- 
out the South and the North in his endeavor to effect a union of 
all the Indian tribes against the white people. His idea was to 
make the Ohio river a northern boundary of white men's land and 
that all above it should belong to the Indians. The activity of 
Tecumseh was something marvelous. All of his journeys, he it 
remembered, were on foot or by means of canoe, yet he visited 
the Creeks, the Cherokees, the ( )jibwas, and a dozen other tribes. 
Were he able to combine them he might have held the Ohio 
country,, for he twice rolled hack the title of white invasion to the 
south of the river. I lis brother, cooperating with him, gained 
great renown as a magician and prophet. Some of his exhorta- 
tions were sensible and highly moral. None of them — save that 
■ it attacking the whites — can he claimed to have been had. 

These two men working together created a profound impres- 
sion in the minds of the Indians. They united all the Indians of 
Ohio against the white people. While Tecumseh was in the 
South in 1794, Gen. Anthony Wayne defeated them at Fallen 
Timbers on the Maumee. After this the treaty of Greenville, 
1795, was signed. It appears that Tecumseh and the Shawanoes 
for some time adhered faithfully to that treaty, hut the whites did 



THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 29 

not and freebooters from Kentucky and Virginia and from the 
settlements on the north side of the river began to shoot Indian- 
on one pretext or another. The situation rapidly became tense. 
At a great council attended by all the Indians, Tecnmseh made a 
remarkable speech some four hours in length. lie rehearsed the 
entire history of the aggression by the whites from the landing of 
th Pilgrims down to the signing of the Greenville treaty. As an 
oration delivered in his native tongue, it moved the assembled 
hundreds to tear-. The interpreter confessed himself utterly in- 
adequate to render it into English for the benefit of the few white- 
present. Hence we have no record save that the oration is men 
tioned by writers at that time as something be\ond the ordinary, 
that it made a great impression on the Indians present, and that 
Tecnmseh was reverenced by them. 

The battle of the Thame-. < )ctober 5th, 1813, in which Te- 
cnmseh was killed, has been often told and it not necessary to 
describe it here. Because Proctor and his allies fled, the great 
Shawano knew that he must depend upon his own warrior.-. 
Tecnmseh and his men realized the inevitable, yet they hardened 
their hearts and withstood the shock. Nothing is absolutely 
known regarding Tecumseh's death beyond the fact that he fell. 

Tecumseh was typical of the best of the Shawano Indians, 
and Greene County may lay claim to him not without reason. If 
he was not born within the confines of our fair region, he at least 
spent much of his time there. His people called < >ld Chillicothe 
their capital. Their largest council house, built of logs, was near 
where the brick schoolhouse now stands in the center of Old 
Town. There were man_\' houses in this village, for ( >ld Town 
was larger in 1780 than at any time in it- history. Col. John 
Bowman and 160 Kentuckians in 1779 attacked Old Town and 
burned about forty cabins. But they could not take the council 
house because the Shawanoes fired upon all who attempted to 
approach. Bowman's much heralded expedition was a virtual 
defeat for the white-. 

It must not be believed for a moment that the Shawanoes at 
Old Chillicothe were savages. I hey lived in comfortable log 
cabins, were well clothed, had garden- and orchards, and if the 




OLDTOWN. 

View from a hill on the east. 
\ Lew showing schoolhouse and memorial stone. 



W. P. McKay. 



THE ORIGINAL PEOPLE OF THE COUNTY. 



:;i 



white people had let them alone, they would have been living, in 
all probability, at the present time much after the fashion of the 
descendants of the Iroquois in western New York. The darkest 
spot in Shawano history is the presence of the two renegades, 
George and Simon Girty. Nothing good can he said of these men. 
Simon afterward'- deserted the Shawanoes and lived with the 
Mingoes and Wyandottes — Indians morally inferior to the Shaw 
anoes. George resided for some time with the Shawanoes, but 
most of the tribe had little in common with these two outcasts. 

( )ld Chillicothe has been abandoned by [ndians for 120 years. 
The race that the Shawanoes had just reason to hate, tramps 1111 
ceasingly back and forth over the site where once stood the simple 
wigwams and the council chamber of this remarkable and inter- 
esting tribe. We have all that was once theirs. Let us be just 
and accord them their meed of praise. 




Trail i I i. hi has ii thai in this n (near the New Jasper pike, about 

two miles from Xenial Simou Kenton once Wi'l him- 
self i o esca i"' the I odians. 



32 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE 
COUNTY. 



DeETTA GRKINKK WILSON. 




the thirty-six men who framed the 
Constitution of the State of < )hio, and 
took the necessary steps seeking the 
admission of the same to the I nion, 
were two who. while credited to Ham- 
ilton County, were then residing within 
the boundary of what was afterwards 
Greene County. They were John Wil- 
son, residing near the present site of 
Bellbrook, and Col. John I 'aid, after 
wards the founder of Xenia, who resided at what is now known 
a- I rebein's Stati< >n. 

Through the efforts of this body of men. on February 19, 
1803, Ohio was admitted to the Union, being the seventeenth 
state and the first of the Northwest Territory. 

Previous to this, there had keen several counties laid out in 
the territory, Washington being the first and occupying the entire 
eastern part of the territory of Ohio. Hamilton, in 1790, was 
the second, named fir Alexander Hamilton, and embraced all 
the land lying between the Little .Miami River and the boundar} 
line between the lands of the United States and the Indians, 
made by the treaty of Greenville in 1795. Ross County occupied 
the land west of Washington County in the central part of the 
Stair, its western boundary being not far from Cedarville, this 
county, which was first called Newport. This left a strip about 
ten miles wide, which was neither Ross nor Hamilton. 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 33 

In the same year thai < >hio was made' a stale, four counties, 
by aet of the first Stale Legislature, were organized from por 
tions of Hamilton and Ross, and the strip above referred to. 
These four counties were all, on May 1, 1803, given names of 

Revolutionary heroes as follows: Warren was named for Gen. 
Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Mill; Butler for Gen. Richard 
Butler who fell in St. Clair's defeat; Montgomery was named for 
Gen. Richard Montgomery whose life was given up at the assault 
of Quebec; and Greene for (len. Nathaniel Greene, distinguished 
for his many brave acts dvring the Revolution. 

Greene and Montgomery Counties extended originally from 
their present southern boundaries to the north line of the Slate, 
and from the east line of Greene County to the west line of the 
State. But these broad dimensions were only of short duration 
as, two years later. Champaign County was organized, thus cut- 
ting oft the northern expanse of Greene, and in 1817 the count) 
was reduced to its present boundaries, lying entirely within the 
Virginia Military Reservation and what is known as the Symmes 
Purchase. 

The Virginia Military Reservation consisted of more than 
4,000,0C0 acres reserved by Virginia for her troops in the Clark 
expedition and for her soldiers in the Continental army. It 
embraces all the land lying between the Scioto and Little .Miami 
Rivers. That part of the county lying west of the Little Miami 
is a part of the original Symmes Purchase, a tract of l,OD0,CO0 
acres contracted for, with the government, by John Symmes, for 
himself and his associates, ddie Virginia Reservation had already 
drawn to this locality a considerable number of Revolutionar) 
veterans and others from that State. Any one holding a \ irginia 
land warrant could locate it wherever he desired within the dis- 
trict and in such shape as he pleased, only providing the land had 
not been previously located. Such a haphazard way natural!) 
led to much litigation in later years. 

The first tract of land within the present limits of Greene 
County was entered by John Jamison, August. 1787, sixteen 
years before Ohio became a state and nineteen days after the 
ordinance of 1787. It was a tract of 1200 acres on the Little 



34 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

Miami near Oldtown, entered on a military warrant, surveyed 
by Nathaniel Massie in 17 ( <4, and recorded in the land office at 
Cincinnati in May, 17' >5. 

Across the county, east and north of Xenia, was the line of 
Col. Logan's march to Chillicothe town, in 1786, in General 
Clark's campaign against the Indians. 

Many persons for whom surveys were made not only never 
occupied but never saw them, among whom were many men of 
Revolutionary fame. A tract of 2500 acres was entered by 
Major-General Horatio Gates, who commanded the American 
forces at Saratoga. It lies but a short distance southeast of 
( cdarville. 

TOWNSHIPS. 

At the organizing of the comities, places were appointed as 
temporary scats of justice; that selected for Greene County being 
the home of Peter Borders on Beaver Creek. ( )n May 10, 1803, 
court convened for the dividing of Greene county into townships, 
of which originally there were but four; Sugar Creek. Caesar's 
Creek, Mad River and Beaver Creek'. Sugar Creek Township 
included all that is now Sugar Creek, nearly all of Spring Valley 
Township and part of what is now Xenia Township. In August, 
1803, James Collier, the enumerator, reported living in the town 
ship at that time seventy-one free white inhabitants over twenty- 
one years of age. The house of James Clancy, on the present 
site of the town of Bellbrook, was appointed as a place of holding 
electi< >ns. 

Caesar's Creek Township was about four times as large as 
Sugar Creek and included all the southeastern part of the count)'. 
The number of free white males over twenty-one years of age, 
as reported by Joseph Price, the hist assessor of this township, 
was fifty eight. The site of Xenia was in this township. The 
voting place appointed was the residence of William 1. Stewart. 

Mad River Township was the third to he organized and the 
largest in the county. Not any of this township was within the 
present boundaries of Greene Comity. Its southern boundary 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 35 

line was the south boundary of the tenth range of the township, 
in what is now Clark County, extending east and west the entire 
width of the county and north to the limits of the State. John 
Daugherty, of Springfield, was the first enumerator and reported 
one hundred and fifty-six males over the age of twenty-one. 
Springfield had been appointed as the place of holding elections 
at the home of Griffith Foos. 

Beaver Creek Township was the second in size and Peter 
Popenoe, the first assessor, reported as residing in the township, 
one hundred and fifty-four white male inhabitants over the age 
of twenty-one. At that time Beaver Creek Township included 
all the lands lying south of Mad River Township and north of 
Sugar Creek and Caesar's Creek. The site of the town of 
Springfield then lay partly in Mad River Township and partly 
in Beaver Creek. The elections were appointed to be held at the 
house of Peter Borders; the same place where was held the first 
comity court. The total number of voters in the entire county 
at the organization, as reported by the first enumeration, was 439. 

In 1805 it was found advisable to organize a new township 
from parts of Caesar's Creek and Beaver Creek to be known as 
Xenia Township; and two years later, 1807, Bath Township was 
organized, being taken wholly from the territory of Beaver 
Creek. It included part of what is now Champaign County and 
part of three townships in Clark County. The first election in 
Math Township was held at the house of Andrew Read, of Read's 
Mill, and two justices of the peace were elected, Andrew Read 
for the western portion and Thomas Cream for the eastern por 
tion of the township. At first both had quarters at what is now 
the town of Yellow Springs, but later at their residences. The 
old stone house on Read's 11 ill is still standing, hearing the date 
over the d< >< trway, 1819. 

On the eighth day of June. 1808, Miami Township was 
organized from portions of Rath and Xenia Townships, and the 
f.rst election was held at the house of David S. Broderich at 
Yellow Springs. The first enumeration of this township differs 
from that of other townships previously organized in that it in- 
cludes a number of women and is designated as a "list of all tax- 



36 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

payers," while the former enumerations were designated as a 
"list of all free white male inhabitants over twenty-one." 

Silver Creek Township was organized on March 4th. 1811, 
being taken mostly from Caesar's Creek, with a small portion 
from Xenia Township. It included, originally, all that now is 
lefferson and the eastern part of Spring Valley Township. The 
first election was held at the house of Noah Strong. 

The same date also marked the organization of Ross Town- 
ship. It was taken entirely from Xenia Township. The first 
election was held at the residence of John Bozarth. 

In 1812 a township was formed from a part of Miami and 
was called Vance Township in honor of the Honorable Joseph 
Vance, hut after the organizing of Clark County only a fractional 
part of this township remained in Greene County and that was 
attached to Ross Township. 

The very prosperous township of Cedarville was not organ- 
ized until December, 1850, and, while of very irregular boundary 
lines, the form has keen but little changed. This was taken from 
the townships of Xenia, Caesar's Creek, Ross and Miami. It 
seems to have been the first township formed against which a 
protest was entered, the following being a portion of the protest 
tiled with the commissioners by the citizens of Ross Township: 
"Our reasons we will fully set forth in your presence, only add- 
ing here that we are not willing to have any of our township cut 
off, which is already too small, to gratify the caprice or spleen 
of any." Which protest seems, however, to have failed, for the 
township was duly organized and place of election appointed at 
the house of John W. Walker, in the town of Cedarville. 

In 1852, Xew Jasper Township was organized, being taken 
from the townships of Caesar's Creek and Xenia; and 1850 wit- 
nessed the organizing of Spring Valley Township, which was 
formed from adjacent parts of Sugar Creek, Caesar's Creek and 
Xenia Townships. 

In June, 185S, was organized Jefferson Township, taken 
entirely from Silver Creek, and for fifty years there has been no 
change in the number of townships in the county. 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 37 

C< )UNTY COURT. 

The house in which the first county court was held, pre 
viously spoken ol as the Peter Borders house and occupied by 
Peter Borders, was one oi several houses in that locality owned 
by Owen Davis, and built by his son-in-law, Gen. Benjamin 
Whiteman. It was on the I Iarhine farm, near the present rail 
way station of that name, and was built of burr oak logs, hewed 
on two sides and had a puncheon floor, planed on the upper side. 
The house had one small window, and a chimney built of small 
logs, lined with stones, its upper part <<\ sticks lined with clay. 
It was about twenty-five feet square, with one room below and 
one above, which was the sleeping apartment. The moss-covered 
bucket hung near by on the long well sweep and a huge pet bear 
was chained to one corner of the house. This was one of the 
best houses in this part of the country, and was also used as a 
tavern as well as a court-room. A little to the east was a smoke 
house, ten by twelve, used, during the sessions of court, as a jury 
room. Northeast, at a little distance, stood one of two block 
houses, intended tor safety should Indians make an attack, hut 
early appropriated for use as a jail. 

During the first term of court Peter Borders was granted 
license to keep a tavern, for which he paid $-1.00. lie was re 
quired to furnish good entertainment under penalty of $5.00 fine 
for first offense and $8.00 for each succeeding offense. We well 
wonder what was meant by good entertainment when the land 
lord, landlady, children, servants, attorneys, judges and travelers 
were all lodged in one sleeping apartment, twenty-five feet square, 
such as Greene (Vanity's first tavern and court-house furnished. 

In LS25, when the road leading past this famous edifice was 
closed, the latter was moved upon the ground afterwards the 
front lawn of Mr. John I Iarhine, Sr. In 1833 it was torn down, 
hut the excavation left from the chimney was permitted to remain, 
and now forms a small depression in front of the 1 Iarhine resi 
dence, a modest hut historical monument to the county's first 
hostelry and seat < if justice. 

On Tuesday, August 2, 1803, the first court of Greene 
County was held in the Peter Borders house described above, 




THE OLD COUKT EOI SE. 



Phuto by 1 E. Mi Gerve 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 39 

with William Maxwell, Benjamin W hitcnian and James Barrett 
as the associate judges, and Francis Dunlavy, presiding judge, 
and Daniel Symmes, prosecuting attorney. The first grand jury 
for the county consisted of the following persons: William J. 
Stewart, foreman, John Wilson, William Buckles, Abrm. \ an 
Eaton, James Snodgrass, John Judy, Evan Morgan, Robert Mar- 
shall, Alex. C. Armstrong, Joseph C. Vance, Joseph Wilson, John 
Buckhannon, Martin Mendenhall and Harry Martin. 

It is told of this first grand jury, that when they solemnly 
retired to an adjoining hut, and went into executive session. 
there was no evidence of criminal affairs to he brought before 
them and there would have been no witnesses examined, and no 
indictments rendered, had not the crowd assembled in honor oi 
the occasion furnished the material. The occasion was so oul of 
the ordinary that a large crowd had come together, not only 
from this, but from surrounding counties; if they were to have 
the luxury of a court, this court must have something to do. A 
number of fights, assaults and batteries and affrays of different 
sorts were indulged in during the day and ample material for 
work was furnished the grand jury. Before the day closed 
seventeen witnesses were examined and nine indictments found; 
to these indictments all parties pleaded guilty and were fined, and 
Greene County court adjourned for the first day. The same 
session of court on the second day appointed Joseph C. \ ance, 
father of Ex-Governor Vance, to make arrangements for estab- 
lishing the count}- scat. The bond required of him for faithful 
performance of duty was $1,500 and his bondsmen were David 
Huston and Joseph Wilson. The following December "Joseph 
Vance was allowed $-19.25 for laying off the town of Xenia, 
finding chainmen, and selling lots." 

This first session of Greene County court lasted three days. 
Among other matters transacted James Galloway, St., was 
appointed treasurer, and James Galloway, Jr., surveyor of the 
county. This same court granted to Archibald Dowry and Grii 
fith Foos license each to keep a tavern in the town of Springfield 
(later the county seat of Clark County I for the payment of $8.00 
for each license, and also to Peter Borders, the owner and occu- 



4o CREENE COUNTY L803-1908. 

pant of the house in which court was being held. A later session 
of the court ordered that titty cents be paid for every wolf killed 
in the county. It is told that the narrow valley through which 
the Little Miami Railroad extends southwest of Xenia toward 
Cincinnati was literally a den of wolves. These, with catamounts, 
panthers and bears, caused serious annoyance and made the pro- 
tecting of the farmer's stock a matter of no small importance. 
The >ame session caused the larger of the two block houses near 
Peter I '.orders' tavern to be prepared to serve for a jail. 

At one of the earlier sessions of the court of Greene Count), 
it was ordered that the taxes of the inhabitants of Mad River 
Township be reduced two cents on each horse, and one cent on 
each cow. The reason assigned was "for erecting public build- 
ings." In vain do we look about for the public buildings — they 
are not to be found within the confines of the then very large 
county of Greene, and it is still a matter of conjecture as to the 
exact meaning of this ruling. 

Records also show that at this time Joseph Vance was paid 
$6.00 for carrying the election returns to Cincinnati. 

It is an interesting fact that the earlier cases that came 
lie fore the courts were almost always cases of assault and battery 
or cases growing out of personal encounters; a little later these 
decreased and civil cases became more frequent. 

The total amount of taxable property in Greene County 
returned by the "listers" for the year 1804 was $393.04 and this 
included "houses and mills, if any." But one house was returned 
for taxation and it was taxed $1.00. It might be of passing 
interest to compare with the above modest sum the amount of 
taxable propertv listed for the year 1908, which is $19,302,291.00. 

Supreme Court was also held in the Peter Borders' house 
in October, 1803, with Samuel Huntingdon and Win. Spriggs, 
judges, Wm. Maxwell, sheriff, and John Paul, clerk. Arthur St. 
( lair ol Cincinnati was prosecuting attorney, and it is said quite 
overawed the plain country folk with his gorgeous costume, ap- 
pearing in full military array. 

At the November term of court in 1803, Rev. Albert Arm- 
strong was granted license to solemnize matrimony. Rev. Arm- 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 41 

strong, with a colleague, had been sent in 1798 by the General 
Synod of Scotland as a missionary to Kentucky; but, disliking 
the institution of slavery, they sought other fields. Rev. Armstrong 
coming to Greene County, ( )hio. 

EARLY SETTLERS. 

The historians from whom this paper is compiled agree that 
John Wilson was the first white man to make a permanent home 
in what later was known as Greene County. In April, 17'"). he, 
with his three sons. Amos. Daniel and George, and Jacob Mills, 
came from Kentucky to make a settlement in the Northwest Terri- 
tory. Later divisions into counties showed that the land pur- 
chased by \\ ilson and two of his sons was located in Greene, the 
other son's in Montgomery, while Mills' was in Warren County. 
One small cabin was erected by Daniel Wilson in 1796 — the first 
house in Greene County, about four miles from where Bellbrook 
now stands, in the southern part of Sugar Creek Township. 
.Around this little cabin the timber was cleared and corn, beans 
and potatoes planted. Then these brave pioneers returned to get 
their families. One ox team and wagon carried all the 'Mares et 
penates" of the rive families. They crossed the Ohio at Fort 
Washington, now Cincinnati, and followed the military road cut 
by Gen. Wayne in 1 7 ( >3 . All five families occupied the one little 
cabin until each, with united assistance, could erect a cabin on 
his own purchase, and from this humble cabin came one of the 
framers of the State Constitution. John Wilson, the father of 
the family. To tell of the forming of other homes in the count) 
would only be repeating the story of this first home — all endured 
the same hardships. 

Two years later. 1798, Thomas Townsley settled near the 
falls of Massie's Creek, about eight miles from Xenia, and this 
same year James Galloway, Sr., settled on the Little Miami two 
miles north of Oldtown. The old log house, which was later 
weatherboarded over, is still standing, the property of the Miami 
Powder Co., and bears the date, upon a stone over the door, of 
1801. A little west of them, at Old Chillicothe (Oldtown) lay 
the scene of possibly the most interesting events of this section. 



42 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

this being one of the most famous congregating places for the 
Indians from all directions. < >n one of their trails starting from 
Hocking County and leading direct to Old Chillicothe, for many 
years there stood a large beech tree on which was cut, in legible 
characters. "This is the road to hell, 1782," possibly traced by 
some unfortunate prisoner on his way to Old Chillicothe. Here, 
in 1778, Daniel Boone was held as prisoner and succeeded so well 
in ingratiating himself in the good favor of the Indians that they 
adopted him into their tribe, hut he soon escaped from them and 
lied to Kentucky to warn his people of the proposed onslaught 
by the Indians. 1 fere too, Simon Kenton ran the gauntlet; and 
17"'' marked in this locality the famous Bowman expedition, all 
of which are interesting stories in themselves. But the story of 
< )ld Chillicothe is told at length in another article. 

Returning to the early white settlers, the Galloway family 
was near neighbors to some of the best known of the Indians 
who occupied that part of the county. This fact is worthy id 
special note as their family traditions are rich in interesting 
accounts of the friendships with the red men that were formed in 
those early days. The distinguished Tecumseh was a frequent 
and welcome visitor at this home and soon became much infatu- 
ated with the daughter, Rebecca. With the true dignity which 
was ever a trait of the character of Tecumseh, he approached the 
lather, who feeling that the daughter could, perhaps, more tact- 
fully find a way out of the embarrassing position and still retain 
the good will of the Indians, which they greatly desired to keep, 
he referred him to her. The chief fearlessly appealed to the girl 
herself, for was not he the great Tecumseh, the leader of his 
people? He offered her beautiful gifts of silver and ornaments 
dear to his people. She told him she could not work like the In- 
dian women did. nor lead the wild life they did. He assured her 
that she need not work. Then she changed her tactics and told 
him she would consider his proposition if he would promise to 
lead the life of a white man and assume their dress and habits. 
I his matter he look under consideration, hut finally told her, most 
sorrow fully, that he could not possibly do that ; that the taking up 
oJ the manners and customs of the white man would place him in 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH <>!• GREENE COUNTY. \:\ 

everlasting disgrace wtih his people and much as he desired the 
union he could not bear their reproaches. And thus we see the 
womanly daughter of the pioneer fully able to turn aside the un- 
desirable suitor but still retain a very necessary friend, for the 
friendship between Tecumseh and the family never waned. 

tsaiah and William Sutton erected the firsl house in what was 
afterwards Caesar's (.'reek Township as early as 1799. It was 
erected near the intersection of the Bullskin Road and Caesar's 
Creek. 

The first person to settle within the boundaries of Bath 
Township was a Virginian, named Mercer, possibly as earl) a 
1798. It was customary in those days to accord a preemption to 
the first settler, who was also entitled to a premium of twenty five 
cents on each acre purchased by him. By taking advantage of 
this offer Mercer was enabled to purchase a large tract of land. 

In 1£03, John Hosier settled on land near Fairfield, the site 
of which was then marked by one hut. For his land he paid two 
shillings per acre for the preemption rights of a man who had 
preceded him, and to the government $2 per acre, with rive years' 
time in which t< > pay it. 

The site of a famous old Indian town named Piqua can be 
located near Fairfield at which Gen. George R. Clark defeated 
the Indians in 1780. 

PUBLIC ROADS. 

To be in the neighborhood of a public road was a matter of 
great importance to the early settlers. The Pinkney Road was 
the first beaten track through the wilderness, leading from Cin- 
cinnati through Lebanon and extending through what is now Main 
street. Bellbrook, north toward Alpha. It was over this road 
that supplies came from Cincinnati and over which came the 
attorneys and others at the time of holding court. The Pinkney 
Road was intersected just north of Bellbrook by a road called the 
"Beer Road," leading to Dayton, as over it much beer was hauled 
U ) market. 

The first public road into Xenia, from tin- south, was the 
Bullskin Road, now the Burlington Pike. It extended from a 



44 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

village and ferry on the Ohio River called Bullskin, from which 
the n»ad took its name, north to Urbana, < )hio. 

In L845, the first railroad in this part of the State, the Little 
Miami, was built across the southern and western part of the 
county. Owing to a general opposition to the enterprise, caused 
by a lack of faith in the practicability of railroads, for they were 
yet untried, progress was slow; aid promised by the State had 
been withdrawn, and much of the stock subscribed by the farmers 
along the line was paid in produce and this sold at a sacrifice. 
Too much credit cannot be given Governor Jeremiah Morrow, 
the first president of the road, who not only gave liberally of his 
own private means to the enterprise, but devoted several years 
of his life to a personal supervision of the construction of the 
road, receiving not one penny for his services. 

FOUNDING OF THE COUNTY SEAT. 

Immediately following the order of court, in the autumn of 
1803, Joseph C. Vance proceeded to lay out the county seat on the 
land of John Paul, who gave the public square as it is now known, 
for the public buildings. The late Captain Benoni Xeshitt related 
an interesting story as told him in his boyhood days by one Lewis 
Davis, then an old man. of the foresight of John Paul in acquiring 
the land where Xenia now lies. Davis was a pioneer and large 
land owner and seemed at times possessed of an intuitive knowl- 
edge as to the direction of development in the new country. It 
had been a dream of John Paul's that the count)' seat should he 
located on the land owned by him about three miles west of Xenia. 
In conversation with Paul. Davis disagreed with him and taking 
a map spread it upon the ground and demonstrated his assertion. 
Placing one end of his riding whip on Cincinnati and the other 
on Sandusky, where this line crossed the forks of Shawano, or 
Shawnee, Creek he placed his finger and said, "There will be the 
county scat!' supporting his assertion by the statement that 
county scats in this section naturally located themselves upon 
thoroughfares between points on the ( )hio on the south, and Lake 
Erie on the north. Paul kept his own counsel hm within a few 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. l.. 

days journeyed to I incinnati and entered all the land in the 
vicinity, upon which Xenia was a little later located. 

Tradition tells that a little village called Caesarsville was laid 
out before the funning of the county with the anticipation of 
making it the county scat at some future time. It seems to have 
been laid out with broader ideas of space than were held in the 
conception of the present county seat. It is recounted thai in 
this embryonic county seat blazed trees were necessary to lead the 
stranger from one humble dwelling to another, and each cabin 
was surrounded by a corn held thickly dotted over with girdled 
trees. It is also told that one of these primitive buildings, erected 
by William I. Stewart and used as a voting place, had been desig- 
nated as the future court house and a public well had been dug. 
This village of Caesarsville was located on or near the farm of 
.Mr. Paris Peterson, four miles southeast of Xenia. 

The names Caesarsville, Caesar's Creek, etc., it is said, came 
from a fugitive slave, Caesar by name, who hid in that vicinity. 

Dill's history, from which the above was gathered, tells also 
of the ambitions of Jamestown to be the county seat of this 
thriving young county. As the story goes, the claims on both 
sides seemed to be very strong and it was decided to determine 
the question by ballot. The vote was taken at Xenia and resulted 
in a tie, or rather, would have been a tie, but for the fact that a 
solitary rider was seen approaching the voting place just before 
the voting hour closed, lie refused to state his preference, but 
was importuned by both sides to cast his vote and decide- the 
contest, which he did. and the result was a majority of one in 
favor of Xenia. It was later discovered that three who favored 
Jamestown, forgetting the date of the election, had failed to be 
present, else Jamestown would have won. 

Several interesting stories have been told as to the naming oi 
Xenia but the most authentic one is perhaps the one related in 
Robinson's history, by a granddaughter of Owen Davis. John 
Paul, [oseph C. Vance, William Beatty and others invited Owen 
Davis and his wife. Letitia. with many other pioneers of the 
county, to meet with them at the "cross roads" (where Main 
street now intersects Detroil i and as^Ct them in naming the new 



46 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

seal of justice which had been laid out. The invitation was gen- 
erally accepted and quite a crowd was assembled. Many names 
were proposed, among them the names of Washington, Wayne 
and Greenville. It is said that at this time a stranger, a scholarly 
looking man, stepped forward and said, "Gentlemen, allow me to 
suggest a name for your county town. In view of the kind and 
hospitable manner in which I have been treated whilst a stranger 
to most of you, allow me to suggest the name of 'Xenia,' taken 
from the Greek and signifying Hospitality." The name was 
accepted and placed among the names to be balloted upon. Sev- 
eral ballots were taken and, as in the balloting between Jamestown 
and Xenia, the vote stood a tie between Xenia and one other name. 
( >u1 of compliment to ( )wen Davis, who at that time was very 
prominent in the county, his wife was asked to cast the deciding 
vote which she cast in favor of Xenia. It is said that the stranger 
who suggested the name was the Rev. Robert Armstrong, who, 
the following year, was made pastor of Massie's Creek and Sugar 
Creek Associate congregations. 

EARLY DAYS IX XEXIA. 

The plat of the town of Xenia, as recorded in the recorder's 
office in 1804, contained "270 acres, be the same more or less." 
The first effort to have Xenia incorporated was presented in 1813 
to the Legislature by Jacob Smith, then representing Greene 
Count)- in that body. For some reason the law under which the 
incorporation was made became inoperative and in 1817 a second 
effort was made by Joseph Tatman, who represented Greene 
County in the I louse, and Jacob Smith, who was a member of the 
< )hio Senate from Greene and Clinton Counties. 

The thrift of the early county commissioners, whil< com- 
mendable in some instances, we find most alarming at other times, 
;i^ is shown by the county records when on January 4, 1 S 1 7" , they 
met for the purpose of surveying and marking different lots to be 
sold Jroiu of] the public square, and to make preparations for 
their --ale agreeable to order from the court. Four lots were 
sold averaging in price about $472, while the fifth lot was bid in 
b) Ryan Gowdy for his brother James and brought $1381. Mr. 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 47 

Gowdy was the first merchant in Xenia and had previously pur 
chased the first lot lying east of, and adjoining, the public square 
(Green street being not then opened), and the lol purchased by 
him at this sale was the one on the extreme east of the public 
square adjoining his property. Some one other than James 
( rowdy seems to have considered this a desirable lot, judging from 
the price paid. It is not for us today to question the motives of 
Mr. Gowdy as shown by his actions later, whether they indicate 
selfishness, business tact, shrewdness or what not, but rather to 
exalt his memory for saving, to the county and Xenia, the public 
square. Mr. Gowdy argued that in the purchase of the lot on 
which his business property was erected, he was influenced by the 
fact that it was next to the public square and, therefore, he would 
have no competitors near him on the west side; that in paying this 
exorbitant price for the lot from the public square he was forced 
to do so in order to protect himself from competition. He also 
asked to have the sales all set aside, attempting to show that the 
commissioners had exceeded their power in selling that which had 
been donated expressly for public buildings for the county. This 
was made a test case and in May, 1821, the Supreme Court de 
cided that the sale was not legal and the lots again became the 
property of the county intact as it came from the hands of the 
donor and as it is today. 

The first cabin in Xenia was erected in April, 1804, by John 
Marshall, in the southwest corner of the town near the southeasl 
corner of Third and West streets. The same year quite a rivalry 
existed in the building of two good log houses on Main street ; 
one being built by William A. Beatty opposite the public square, 
to be used as a tavern (this being the first tavern in Xenia), and 
the other by the Rev. James Fowler on West Main street, on the 
site of the old Eavey wholesale house. The rivalry as to which 
house should first be finished ran high, and while it is not posi 
tively known, it is thought that the tavern won over the Methodist 
parsonage. Mr. howler seems to have been somewhat of a prop 
erty holder himself, in the early days, judging from the county 
record^. Mr was also the first postmaster in Xenia. 

In the Beatty tavern was held the first court in Xenia, and 




■n ,,,,,. Main Entrance, Now Court House. (Photo bv Canbv ) 
•i 1 '" /.'""'' """"'• s ""' where the first Court House "stood Harbine vard Uoha 
Memorial Cannon, erected b, A rl Gallowa, Camp, Sons ol ^VeterenlFfrst 5 Court House 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 4.9 

also the first election. This continued to be the leading hostelr) 
of the county until Mr. James Collier built a brick hotel on De 
troit street, about midway of the block, facing the public square, 
which in grandeur was so beyond anything previously erected in 
the town that the old tavern faded into insignificance. .Main are 
the interesting stories told of the Collier House and its gne i 
During the War of 1812 it was headquarters for recruiting ofh" 
cers. Courts-martial and courts of inquiry were frequently hell 
here and at one time a British officer and his servant (objects of 
great curiosity ). who were prisoners of war, were there on parole, 
ddie first public ball in Xenia was held at the Collier Mouse and 
was a society event of much note. 

THE COURT IK )USE. 

The contract for building the first court house was let to 
William Kendall in 1806, and the building, which was of brick, was 
completed in ISO' at a cost of $3396. The contractor was allowed 
$6 for clearing the timber from the public square. A fence made 
of oak boards and mulberry posts surrounded the square. The 
entrance was at first through gates but these gave place to stiles. 

In 1K41-2 was built the second court house, the one usually 
referred to today as "the old court house." In 1846, this building 
was considered the most elegant court house in the State. Tn this 
was added, in 1875, quite an extensive addition. No further 
changes were made until 1901, when this building was iazed to give 
place to the present handsome and commodious court house, which 
was erected and furnished within the appropriation of $200,000 

THE COUNTY JAIL. 

In the one hundred and five years since Greene County was 
organized, six different jails have been found necessary, increasing 
in size and accommodations as the demand on the institution increas 
ed. The first jail was, by order of court, under date of Augusl 22, 
1803, constructed from the larger of two block houses near the 
Owen Davis mill and adjoining the Peter I '.orders property, the 
temporary seat of justice for the county, located in Beaver Creek 
Township. 



50 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

The contract for the erection of the second jail — the first 
building in the county erected for this specific purpose — was let on 
1 ul \ 2, 1804, to Amos Darrongh, to be built of hewed logs, and to 
be completed by the 15th of September. It was located on the 
public square. Only a few months later, on March 12, 1805, this 
building was found inadequate to the needs of the young county, 
where, it would seem, crime was keeping pace with the progress 
that was evidenced in other matters, and it was ordered that an 
addition be built to the county jail, the contract being given to 
James Collier for the sum of $640. The contractor was slow in 
completing the work and much fault was found by the county 
commissioners. When the building was finally accepted, August, 
1806, Mr. Collier was docked $50 for imperfections, as the origi- 
nal contractor. Mr. Darrongh, had been docked $30 for defective 
work. In the latter part of 1807, this jail was burned; but the 
contract for erecting the third jail was not given until December, 
1808, when it was ordered that "a public jail be erected in the town 
of Xenia on the ground staked off. The foundation to be 18 inches 
deep and 20 feet square, and all the material of the old jail that 
was saved to be used in the new one." This building was a two- 
story building constructed of hewed logs, and was situated near 
the north end of the square, on the ground afterwards occupied 
by the market house. This jail in the fall of 1808 was also 
burned. 

\ ery soon after the burning of jail number three, the contract 
was lei for the building of a stone jail. This contract was let to 
James Miller, the lowest bidder, at $1,084. It was located on the 
north side ol the public square, being completed and accepted De- 
cember 15, 1815. This was used as a county prison until 1836, 
when it was replaced by a brick building, larger and more modern, 
erected by Daniel Lewis at a cost of $4600 and this also was lc/Cat- 
ed on the public square fronting to die north. The cells for the 
prisoners were on the east side, next to Green street. A hall ran 
through tin- center of the building and on the west side were two 
rooms for the use of tin- sheriff. This jail, as well as the stone 
one which preceded it, had a room used only for debtors, as in 
the early days ol ( ireene ( '< unity it was in it unci »mmi >n ti i imprison 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 51 

for debt. To some debtors was granted the liberty of the jail 
yard; some were only prohibited from leaving the county, while 
others were confined to the debtors' room. 

I hat the count)- commissioners were a thrifty set of men is 
shown in the fact, found in some old records, thai on the second 
day ot December, 1822, as there were no prisoners in the debtors' 
room, there was no necessity for a tire, and rather than have the 
stove in that room idle, it was rented to John McPherson for sev- 
enty-five cents a month, "to he returned at any time on the order 
of the jailor, after a sufficient time allowed for it to gel cool." 

There was, during the early days, a sugar tree upon the public 
square which served as a whipping post. A culprit who had stolen 
a set of plow irons received a sentence of eight lashes on the hare 
hack in ( )ctober, 1808. This was the second and last public whip- 
ping for crime in our fair county, the first being one stripe for 
stealing leather to half-sole a pair of shoes. 

The present jail, with the residence of the sheriff, was built 
in I860, the location being then changed from the public square to 
the southwest corner of Market and Whiteman streets. The con 
tract was awarded to John Scott for the sum of $7,340. and the 
building was accepted by the commissioners on the 8th day of 
December, 1860. This i> the sixth county jail and the fifth build- 
ing erected for that purpose. 

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

The first public library in Xenia was organized in 1X16. with 
fifty-two subscribers. The constitution stated that each subscriber 
should pay to the librarian "five dollars on each share annually." 
The subscribers were to "meet on the fourth Saturday of March, 
1816, and on the same day annually forever" for the purpose oi 
electing directors and transacting all necessary business. Each 
subscriber was entitled to draw books in proportion to the number 
of his shares. In spite of the fact that this constitution declared 
that the subscribers were to meet "annually forever" the existenc : 
of this library seems not to have been of long duration. 

We find in the archives of the county no record of any other 
library being established until in the forties, when was in existence 



52 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

an organization known as "The Lyceum" and to it is credited the 
beginning of Xenia's present library. After several years the 
Lyceum ceased to exist, hut the hooks collected formed the nucleus 
of a library which later passed into the hands of the V. M. C. A. 

This library was short-lived. The hooks from it again changed 
hands, coming into the control of a reading club of eight ladies. 
organized in 1878. Appreciating the need of a public library in 
Xenia, this club formed itself into "The Young Woman's Library 

Association." Claiming to possess only energy and perseverance, 
they hoped for success if assistance be given them. They met 
with encouragement and at this time the hooks from the former 
library were placed under their control. In 1881, the Association 
became an incorporated body and each year showed marked in- 
crease and success. The same organization continues in control, 
and through its earnest efforts Xenia is now in possession of a 
handsome Carnegie Library. 

CHURCHES. 

It has well been said that "religion entered the county hand in 
hand with the pioneers." for, before churches were erected, we find 
the people forgetting not the assembling of themselves together for 
prayer and praise. 

Caesar's Creek Baptist Church is probably the oldest organized 
church in the county. It is located on the dividing line between 
Xew Jasper and Silver Creek Townships. It was organized in 
1803 and a log cabin erected and dedicated as a place of worship. 

Reference has been made to the Rev. Robert Armstrong, who 
came to this county as earl)' as 1802, and his work in the Associate 
Reformed Church. Rev. Armstrong first preached in the house of 
James Galloway,Sr., and also in his barn, in which he baptized the 
children of the family. lie also performed the first marriage 
ceremony — that of James Bull and Ann Gowdy, about 1804, at 
which, the house being too small to entertain the guests, a large 
log-heaped fire was built outside. The first church of this congre- 
gation was built on the Stevenson farm, near where the old grave- 
yard is now situated. Mr. Armstrong lived on the other side of 
Massie's Creek and in times of high water would cross on stilts. 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 

Men and women rode or walked twelve and fifteen miles and sal 
in the coldest weather without fire, to hear two sermons. From 

such material martyrs and heroes are made. The same religious 
denomination soon established churches in Sugar Creek and Xenia, 
and out of these congregations has sprung the nucleus of almosl 
all the eongregations of the United Presbyterian churches in the 
West. 

As early as 1803 and 1804, four adjoining surveys of laud 
were made and settled by the Bonner, Sale, Butler, Davis, Heath 
and other families from Dinwiddie County, Virginia, and to the 
entire settlement was given the name of Union. These families 
were soon joined by others from the ( )ld Dominion. This was a 
strong Methodist community, and meetings were at once organized 
and services held at Mr. Bonner's under the stately forest trees. 
"God's first temples." Under the supervision of Francis Asbury, 
die first Methodist Episcopal Bishop in America, and through the 
preaching of such men as William Young and James I',. Finley, 
and others of like vigor, the tires of Methodism were kept burning. 
A few years later the first Methodist Episcopal church of Xenia 
was organized and previous to that a large circuit had been Formed 
known as Mad River circuit. 

In 1805, the Dunker (German Baptist) Church effected an 
organization in Beavercreek Township, holding services at their 
homes continuously until 1843, when a church was erected. 

As early as 1812, the Society of Friends was organized in 
Silver Creek township. 

< )n the site of what is now known as Heaver Church, in 1809, 
was creeled the first German Reformed (now known as the Re- 
formed) church in the count}. Later this congregation built a 
second log "meeting house" on the site and designated it as Beaver 
Church. 

About 1X12, a widow. Mrs. Davis, a stanch Presbyterian, oc- 
cupied a little cabin on the site of the Yellow Springs I louse. She 
was the means of congregating about her those of her faith, and 
establishing one of the earliest Presbyterian churches in the county. 

In 18-14 there were live Catholic families in Xenia. and Mas- 
was celebrated on the porch of Mr. Klein's residence on Main 



,1 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

street during that year. The records of St. Mary's Church, Piqua, 
show that from time to time until 1X4'' the little congregation 
here was under the jurisdiction of St. .Mary's Church and the base- 
n icnt of the Court I louse was used as a place of worship, this r< torn 
being open to all denominations alike. From 1849 there was 
a definite organization in Xenia and on October 31, 1852. the new 
church building was dedicated by Archbishop Purcell and given the 
name of St. Brigid's in honor of the patroness of Ireland. This 
consummation of untiring effort on the part of the congregation 
was nobly aided by the pastor. Rev. Thomas Blake, who continued 
to be their faithful leader for more than thirty years. St. Brigid's 
Church proudly claims the largest organization of the Father 
Matthews' Total Abstinence Society in the State. The parochial 
school was established in 1X55. 

From these earlier churches have sprung many others of the 
same denominations, while later years have seen through the coun- 
i\ . as well as in the county seat, uniting in the uplifting work with 
the older congregations, very vigorous organizations of other 
creeds, as the Episcopal, the Christian, Protestant Methodist, 
Wesleyan Methodist, Campbellite, Lutheran and Alennonites. 

Special mention should also be made of religious work 
among the colored people. There are in the county today, out- 
side of Wilberforce, 17 colored churches, most of them self- 
supporting, as well as separate schools of a high character and 
taught by their own race. 

Many years ago, it is said, there lived near Yellow Springs 
a peculiar class of people calling themselves < hvenites or Com- 
munionists, led by Robert Owens. In creed and manners they 
bore a strong resemblance to the Shakers, except that they mar- 
ried while the Shakers do not. They occupied one large building 
which, with the contents, was considered common property, and 
profits from labor, if any existed after living expenses were de- 
ducted, were to he divided equally. The house stood in the 
ravine near the cliffs and was divided into apartments, that is, a 
private room for each family, and a common dining room and 
kitchen. The building was of logs — one hundred feet long and 
I wenl\ -one feet wide. Soon the majority assumed to he leaders 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 

and the minority performed the labor. This was followed by a 

lawsuit and thus ended the existence of the < >wenites. 

EARLY SCHO< M.S. 

A cursory glance at the history of the county impresses one 
with the prevailing desire to educate the rising generation, which 
is shown by the little log school houses springing up in ever) 
neighborhood. Indian hostilities had largely ceased prior to the 
forming of the county and the dangers from that source were 
small as compared wth those of some other localities. 

The first schools were conducted on the subscription plan 
and only three months of each year. The log school houses were 
furnished with seats made of hewed planks and with desks con- 
structed by driving pegs in the wall and laying slabs oi timber 
thereon. Light was admitted by means of greased paper covering 
the apertures between the logs, and the floor was often of Mother 
Earth. A huge fireplace occupied at least one-third of the wall, 
and it is comforting to think that, at a time when many of the 
children were so miserably clad, there was at least an abundance 
of fuel to be had for the chopping. The early text books were 
Dilworth's or Pike's Arithmetic. Webster's Spelling Book and 
the Testament. 

The teachers of the Ohio subscription schools were not ex- 
amined and a high standard of qualification was not required by 
the patrons, still there occasionally appeared in the new country 
a highly educated wanderer who eked out a scant}' subsistence 
by teaching a subscription school and "boarding 'round." Mow 
ever, the greater number of the instructors were only fairly well 
informed citizens, accepting the opportunity of teaching in order 
to pursue studies that would qualify them for a more lucrative 
calling. The early schools knew no holidays. The teachers were 
hired by the month and were expected to teach each working day 
in the calendar month. Young America then knew nothing of 
the almost innumerable holidays in the calendar of the twentieth 
century, hut the desire was there and expressed itself in the rough 
though good-natured demand for a "treat" from the teacher on 



56 GREENE COUNTY 1S03-1908. 

such days as Christmas or New Year's. It was always a specific 
demand upon the teacher, of which the following well preserved 
pattern embraces the material points, varying only in the quality 
and quantity with locality and circumstances: 

"Dec. 23, 1817. 
Mr. John Smith. (Teacher) 

Sir : — We, the undersigned committee, in behalf of 
the unanimous vote of scholars of your schools, demand 
that you treat, according to custom, to the following 
articles in amount herein named, to wit: 

200 ginger cakes. 

2 bu. hickory nuts, 

1 peck of hazel nuts. 

10 lbs. of candy. 

10 lbs. of raisins, 
delivered at the school house, noon hour, December 25, 
for the enjoyment and pleasant remembrance of this 
school. It this meets your approbation you will please 
sign and return to the undersigned tomorrow, December 
24, at noon, saying, over your signature, T agree to the 
above." " 

This forceful demand was always signed by a committee of 
the older boys of the school. ( )ccasionally a teacher, not fond of 
the rough and tumble fun that would follow a refusal, meekly 
signed as directed and complied. Hut many a teacher was more 
facetious and preferred a little preliminary skirmishing. , When 
die demand was handed him he would read and deliberately tear 
into small fragments, thus indicating defiance. Then the fun 
began. ( )n the day preceding Christmas, before dawn, the school 
house was occupied by the older boys, provided with fuel and 
provisions sufficient to withstand a siege, and all openings barri- 
caded. One after another the children appeared and were cau- 
tiously admitted (none tardy on that day), and when the teacher 
arrived he found the cabin full of jolly boys and girls denying him 
entrance until he acceded to the demands for the morrow. This was 
commonly called a "barring out." Some fun-loving athletic teachers 
would refuse this and start homeward, only to be followed by a 
yelling, hooting crowd of boys and girls, and a merry chase he 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 57 

would lead them through the woods until caught and bound hand 
and foot. Then he was treated to a mock burial in the snow and 
guarded until he would relenl and promise the treat, when he 
would be released and school duties taken up for the day; no 
punishment and no ill-will followed this fun. On Christmas, at 
noon, the treat arrived, and children, parents and teacher enjoyed 
the feast and later indulged in an old-fashioned spelling match. 




XENIA PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



The country was so thinly settled that it was often difficult 
to make up the requisite number of pupils i fifteen ) in the imme- 
diate neighborhood, and children were frequently compelled to go 
a long distance to obtain even the meager instructions provided 
for them. In the advantage- boys and girls shared alike unless 
the parents were unable to afford the expense of both, then the 
boys generally got the schooling. Bui notwithstanding the re 
strictions there was the desire for knowledge and again and again 
was verified the old saying that, "Where there is a will, there is 
a way." 



58 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

The first school house in the county of which any account 
can be found was built pricr to 1800 in Beaver Creek Township 
(in the Shakertown road near Zimmerman. This school was 
taught by a very eccentric English gentleman who signed himself 
Thomas Marks Davis, the Second, and received for his services 
an uncertain salary of from eight to ten dollars a month. 

The first school house in Xenia was built in 1805 and was of 
logs and of the usual type. At that time there were lint four 
families living in Xenia (Towler, Beatty, Collins and Marshall). 
The school house was situated on the north side of Third street, 
a little west of King, and the first teacher was Benjamin Grover. 

About 1812 what was known as the Xenia Academy, a one- 
story brick structure, was erected on the southeast corner of 
Market and West Streets, Prof. Espy being the principal in- 
structor. 

In the spring of 1816, Thomas Steele, a native of Ireland, 
taught the first school on the lot now occupied by the Central 
High School of Xenia, which he continued until 1848. He was 
a man of dee]) religious convictions and much merit as a teacher. 
A very few of the older residents of the town remember his 
humble dwelling and school house, both situated on this lot. a^ 
well as the thoroughness of his teaching. 

PUBLIC SCH( )( )LS. 

The first record of union or public schools in Xenia is dated 
September 28, 1838. At that time Xenia was organized into what 
was known as a corporation district, and the first board of 
education consisted of the following citizens: William Ellsberry, 
David Monroe and Alfred Trader. 

On the first day of January, 1849, Mr. Josiah Hurty was 
employed as the first superintendent of the public schools of 
Xenia at a salary of $600 per annum, which position he occupied 
for nearly three years. During this time the school was graded 
and the term "high school" applied to the highest department. 
It may not be out of place to give the names of some of the super- 
intendents who succeeded him. Lack of space only prevents us 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. .">'.> 

from speaking at greater length of each of these whose names 
and memories arc held today in deepest respecl by main to whom 
they gave inspiration to nobler manhood and womanh 1. Prom- 
inent among them we find the names of I). W. Gilfillen, Rev. 
James P. Smart, P. II. Jaquith, J. E. Twitchell and George S. 
( )rmsby. 

About the year 1857 there was a change in the State school 
laws which greatly raised the standard of the schools, and at this 
critical period Mr. J. E. Twitchell, a Xew England man, was 
called to the superintendency, his appointment being a most op- 
portune one as he was abundantly able to give the schools the 
prestige needed, which standard was ably sustained by his sue 
cessor, Prof. ( )rmsby, and has since been kept up. Trot. ( )rmsb) 
is the only one of the former superintendents now living and old 
age finds him still keen and alert, physically and mentally. 

To this list of superintendents might, if space permitted, be 
added a long list ni teachers, mostly women, whose conscientious 
work and example of noble living left an indelible impress upon 
the lives of hundreds who were so fortunate as to be instructed by 
them. 

PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 

At different times, private schools had been conducted with 
more or less success. These private schools had much to do with 
molding public sentiment, and hoys and girls there received a 
moral and religious impetus the influence of which is still felt. 
Among the earlier ones was a fashionable boarding school con- 
ducted by Mrs. Hannah Wright. It was located on what is 
known as the Arnold property on the hill south of the depot. 
With the elegance of manner and purity of diction possessed by 
Mrs. Wright, accompanied by a lovable disposition, the popularity 
of the school was widespread. The late Dr. Samuel Wilson 
taught the classics in this school. It is impossible to give the 
exact date of this institution but during the forties it is remem 
bered to have been in a very flourishing condition. Contem- 
porary with this school was a similar one for young ladies con- 
ducted by Mrs. Mulligan on Easl Church street, in what is now 
the kell\ property and in a part of the same house thai is now 



60 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



on the lot. This school was later merged into the Xenia Female 
College, on the same street. 

Possibly near the dates of these two schools for girls, were 
conducted two schools for boys on East Market street, one on the 
western end of the lot now occupied by the Central High School, 
conducted by Prof. John Armstrong, and the other instructed 
and managed by Dr. Hugh McMillen in what is now the Chew 




§h m't %'(§% 





! ■ 



I ■■$■ 




b&* --Sife&i^^SS.' 



XENIA FEMALE COLLEGE. Fromanoidc 

The buildings still look muc h as above. 

home, immediately east of Central High School. It seems quite 
a coincidence thai so many institutions <>\ learning, from the days 
oi Prof. Steele to the present time, should have centered about 
that locality. Prof. Armstrong was noted as a mathematician 
and the story is given credence that at times difficult problems 
were sent to him from English universities for solution. For 
some years after his death his two daughters conducted a private 
chi M il i'i ir children in the same home. 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 61 

Dr. McMillen, of the other school, was not only desirous 
but competent to instruct his own son, hut not desiring him to be 
educated alone, he opened his doors to other boys. The school 
was in no sense conducted for revenue; those who could were 
expected to pay. hut many were the proteges of \)v. McMillen. 

About 1853 was opened the Union Female Seminary in what 
is no\\- the dormitory of the Theological Seminar)-. More of this 
school appears in another article. It was in existence aboul ten 
years, when it became what was known as a Musical Academy, 
with an entire change of management, and for some years, this 
was a very successful institution. 

Notable among the private schools was the one known as the 
Xenia Female College, located on East Church street, and under 
the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This school 
flourished from 1850 until about 1X.S7, when it was absorbed by 
the larger schools of the church. From 1X57 until 1884 there 
was at the head of this institution one who deserves to he classed 
with McMillen, Steele and others of more than local distinction 
as educators. Reference is made to Prof. William Smith, known 
and loved by hundreds of pupils who sat under his instruction 
and who can testify to his high principles in life, tireless enthu- 
siasm and great personal interest. 

There was one other private school that should be mentioned 
here, as it seems to have been a kindergarten which was conducted 
on similar lines to the kindergartens of the present time, and long 
before the Froebel methods were in general use. This school 
was conducted by Mrs. Elizabeth Farquer Patton, in the fifties in 
the basement of the First tinted Presbyterian Church. 

A few of the earlier public schools through the count)- can 
yet he located. The first school house in Bellbrook was on the 
site of the present residence of Jacob Eiaines, Jr. It was of the 
usual style and presided over by Jacob Bain. 

Tin first school house in Cedarville Township was built on 
the Townsley farm in 1806, and the first teacher was James 
Townsley. The second school house in this township, on Mas 
sie's Creek, was built in 1810, and was considered quite an 
improvement over the first, as it boasted of a puncheon floor, 



62 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

whereas the other had only a dirt floor. William Jenkins was 
probably the first teacher here. 

There are at present within the county, higher institutions of 
wide reputation: The Theological Seminary in Xenia ; Antioch 
College at Yellow Springs, Wilberforce University and Cedar - 
ville College. But each of these, as well as the Ohio Soldiers' 
and Sailors' Orphans' Home, will he fully treated in separate 
articles. 

NEWSPAPERS. 

There are published in Greene County, outside the county 
seat, six weekly papers as follows: The Yellow Springs News, 
founded in 1880, as the Yellow Springs Review; The Osborn 
Local, which has flourished under different names for more than 
twenty-five years; The Cedarville Herald, founded in 1877; The 
Jamestown Journal, established in 1870 as The Jamestown Echo, 
the first paper established in Jamestown, and the first paper in the 
county outside the county seat ( the name of the paper has several 
times been changed) ; The Greene County Press of Jamestown, 
established in 1898; and The Twin City Vidette, published at 
Spring Valley. The Vidette was established in 1905, taking up 
the work formerly done by the Spring Valley Blade and Bell- 
brook Moon, both of which were established about twenty years 
ag« >. 

In the county seat are published two weekly papers, the 
Xenia Republican, established in 1867, and the Xenia Herald, 
established in 1891, formerly the Democrat News; also a semi- 
weekly and daily paper, both under the same management, and 
known as the Xenia Gazette. In 1838 was founded the Xenia 
Torchlight, a weekly paper, starting as a Whig organ. With 
man}' changes in the editorial staff and passing through many 
vicissitudes the Torchlight, which also published a daily for sev- 
eral years, was in 1888 absorbed by the Xenia Gazette. The 
Xenia Gazette was founded in 1868 as a weekly paper. At that 
lime was bought, by the Gazette company, the first cylinder press 
ever used in the county. The weekly' edition of the Gazette was 
abandoned Tor a semi-weekly in 1885, and the daily edition was 
started as early as 1881. It is the oldest paper in the county, as 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 63 

the Gazette dating back forty years, and as successor to the 
Torchlight, dating back seventy years. 

As far hack as 1815, we find a county paper published in 
Xenia called The Xenia Vehicle. Occasionally there is to be 
found a stray copy of a paper published in 1829, called The 
Xenia Gazette, but it was short-lived. During the time from 
1829 to 1833, Thomas Coke Wright, one of the notable characters 
of early Xenia, edited a paper called the Xenia Transcript. 

The Xenia Free Press, established in 1831, and edited by J. 
11. Purdy, flourished for ten years or more. At the top of the 
first page appeared this motto: 

"Pledged but to truth, to liberty and law, 
No favor sways us and no fear shall awe." 

Beginning in 1826 and continuing for some years there was 
published in Xenia a paper called The People's Press and Impar- 
tial Expositor, with the motto, "While 1 have Liberty to write I 
will write for Liberty." — Knox. The editor was James B. Gardi 
ner, his terms were $2.00 in advance Or a note of hand for the 
amount payable in three months, $2.50 if paid within six months 
or $3.00 if not paid until the expiration of the year. The paper 
also stated that "country subscribers may pay the whole amount 
of their subscription in the following articles. Flour, Wheat. 
Feathers, Beeswax, Bacon, Tow and Flax Linen, Sugar and 
Tallow at cash prices." 

About 1830, William D. Gallagher, a man of acknowledged 

literary ability, who spent the most of his life in the neighborh 1 

of Cincinnati, came to Xenia where he spent a year or two, and 
started a campaign newspaper called The Backwoodsman. Mr. 
Gallagher was an enthusiastic Whig and the main object of his 
paper was "to hurrah for Clay and to use up Jimmy Gardiner," 
then editor of the Jackson organ of Xenia. 

About 1838, there was established The Democratic Spark, 
Mr. Ramsey, editor, giving as its object "the diffusion of in f< >rma 
tion and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public rea 
son." It boomed "for President. .Martin Van Buren and a Con- 
stitutional Treasury." 



64 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

Associated with the Xenia newspapers have been several 
men of much more than ordinary literary attainments. Promi- 
nent among them were Rev. ( )tway Curry. Col. Coates Kinney, 
Whitelaw Reid and Senator Preston 15. I dumb. Tlie last two, 
Mr. Reid and Senator I dumb, were at one time, during the fifties, 
editor^ of a paper called the Xenia News. Senator 1'lumb came 
into prominence in later years as U. S. senator from Kansas, in 
which state he located just previous to the war of the Rebellion. 

It may be of interest to note that at one time, during his early 
boyhood, W. D. Howells was a resident of the county. 

The I Ion. William Maxwell, who spent his declining years 
in Greene County and is buried in Heaver Creek Township, edited 
the first paper published in the Northwest Territory, "The Cen- 
tinel of the Northwestern Territory," with the motto, "Open to 
all parties, influenced by none." 

GREENE COUNTY SOLDIERS. 

As early as 1806 there was in the county a strictly enforced 
militia system, under a territorial law enacted in 17X8. All the 
men bearing arms formed one regiment and every able-bodied 
man between the ages of eighteen and forty-five was required 
to muster on the first day of the week at 10 A. M. adjacent to the 
place of public worship. They were inspected by the com- 
mandant on the first Sabbath of each month, due prairie north 
of Oldtown was one of the favorite places of drilling. These 
were gala days. At the captain's command to "stand at ease" 
the sergeant passed along the line with a bucket of whiskey from 
which every one. if he so desired, helped himself. 

In 1830, Captain William .Mcintosh (the first white person 
horn in Greene County) raised and commanded a rifle company. 
They were uniformed in yellow hunting shirts, which gave rise 
to their tided of "Beaver ('reek Yellow Jackets." Captain Mc- 
[ntosh gave much time to their drilling and they acquired consid- 
erable proficiency. 

The uniform of the rank and file of the militia was the 
regular everyday dress of the pioneer, consisting of a tow linen 
shirt, buckskin breeches with blue linsey hunting shirt secured 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 65 

with leather belt and buckle, and wool hat. Much might be said 
of their strength and valor, of their sharpshooting and of their 
courage, for Greene County has a record in war times, beginning 
with the War of 1812, of which there is much to be proud. 

The War of 1812 found the county with not yet a decade of 
history to its credit, hut the patriotism for which it has ever been 
noted was not less then than was shown in the greater struggle of 
a half century later, as well as in the forties, during the Mexican 
Mar. and the Spanish-American, of later date; in both of which 
Greene County was well represented. 

On the 23rd of April. 1861, nine days after the fall of 
Sumter, in response to Lincoln's call for 75.000 men for three 
months 193 men from Greene County had enlisted and offered 
their services to Governor Dennison. From this number Com 
pany A went to Columbus to he mustered in: John W. Lowe, 
captain; Robert Lytle, 1st lieutenant; M. \\ . Trader, 2nd lieu 
tenant. Company B awaited a call from the State which came a 
little later. Colonel Lowe was destined to fall soon after at the 
head of the Twelfth Regiment, ( ). V. I., at Carnifex Ferry, the 
first of < Miio's line officers to fall in the cause of liberty. ( hie 
company of the Forty-fourth Q. V. 1. was raised in Greene 
County and at the expiration of their term of service they reen- 
listed in the Eighth < >hio Cavalry. 

The Seventy-Fourth ( ). V. I. was organized in camp at 
Xenia, in October, 1861, to the extent of seven companies, and 
the following February was ordered to Cam]) Chase, where three 
full companies were added. After two years hard service they 
were granted a thirty-day furlough at home; then, on March 23. 

1864, being re-organized with the addition of one hundred re 
emits, they started to rejoin their brigade in Georgia, and during 
that year were with Sherman in his memorable march through 
Georgia. On the 24th of .May. 1865, this regiment joined in the 
Grand Review in Washington, and was mustered out July 10. 

1865. This regiment was known as "the lighting parson's regi- 
ment," being commanded by the Rev. Granville Moody, a well- 
known and popular Methodist preacher and orator. 

The Ninety-Fourth < '. V. 1. was organized at Camp Piqua, 




THE COUET HOI SE. 
Soul li Front. 



PllOtu by Canby. 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 67 

containing two companies from Greene County. This regiment, 
within the space oi one month, was recruited with its full com 
plement. \\ ithout uniforms or camp equipage, and never having 
been drilled as a regiment, die Ninety-Fourth was ordered to 
Kentucky to meet the forces under ECirby Smith. At Cincinnati 
they were partially uniformed and provided with a limited amount 
of ammunition. The Ninety-Fourth also participated in Sher- 
man's March to the Sea, and in the Grand Review at Washington. 
It was mustered out of service June <>. 1865, "with an aggregate 
of three hundred and thirty eight men — all that was left of them 
— left of one thousand and ten." 

The ( hie 1 lundred and Tenth ( ). V. I., commanded by < ren. 
J. Warren ECeifer, afterwards brigade-commander, was organ 
ized at Camp Piqua, < >hio, < >ctober 3, 1862, and its members were 
from Greene, Miami and Darke Counties. It was immediate!} 
ordered to join the Eastern Army. At Winchester it was assign- 
ed to the Eighth Army Cor])-, but in March. 1864, it became a 
part of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Sixth Army Corps. 

The One I lundred and Tenth was in 21 engagements and 
sustained a loss of /^S men. This regiment, having captured 
more flags than any regiment in the corps, was selected as a guard 
of honor. April 17, 1865, at the presentation of captured flags to 
General Meade, ddie Sixth Corps, at the lime of the Grand 
Review in Washington, was still in northern Virginia and western 
North Carolina on guard against any possible trouble that might 
arise, ami consequently was granted by the President and Cab 
inet what was termed a "Supplemental Review" on June S, 1865, 
upon its arrival in Washington, 1 ). C. This compliment caused 
the Sixth Corps to he called the "pels .if Washington City." 

The One Hundred and Fifty-Fourth Regiment < >. V. J.. 
Robert Stevenson, colonel, was organized at Camp Dennison, 
( >hio, May 9, 1864, to serve one hundred days. It was composed 
of the Twenty-Third Battalion, ( )hio National Guard, from Mad 
ison Count)-, and the Sixtieth Regiment. Ohio National Guard, 
from Greene County, a body of men enlisted for State service 
for a period of live years j n the fall of 1863. It was sent to West 
Virginia where it performed guard, picket and escort duty during 



68 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

ils period of service. August 4, 1864, at New Creek Station, 
West Virginia, it was attacked by, and gallantly repulsed, a force 
of rebels under Johnston and McCauslin, four thousand strong. 
I "poii the expiration of its time of service it was mustered out at 
Camp Dennison, Ohio, September 1. 1864. 

The Tenth and Seventeenth Ohio Batteries drew largely from 
( ireene County and a part of one company was also furnished the 
Fifth < )hio Independent Cavalry as well as one company to the 
Thirty-Fourth Regiment, Piatt's Zouaves, which belonged to the 
honor roll of "Three Hundred Fighting Regiments of the War." 
Space has only permitted the most meager statement of the serv- 
ices of these troops and there are vet in the county many brave sur- 
vivors of other regiments. Four thousand of Greene County's loy- 
al sons went forth as brave soldiers, many of whom never returned, 
but when the last reveille has been sounded and the last veteran 
called home, history will still recount the story of their brave acts 
and their children's children will proudly tell of them to other 
generations. 

The loyal women of Greene County tearfully, yet cheerfully, 
gave up their dearest treasures, their fathers, husbands, sons and 
lovers, and ceaselessly aided, to their fullest power, to preserve 
the Union, lint aching hearts at home did not make idle hands. 
Immediately was formed the organization known as the "Soldiers' 
Aid Society." At the head of the woman's work in this organiza- 
tion, during the rive years of the war, was Mrs. Amanda Trotter. 
Ibis indefatigable leader was ever an incentive to greater efforts 
and she met with free and noble responses from the women, not 
only o| Xenia, but of the entire count)-, as an appeal had been sent 
out for general cooperation. 

A few years ago ( !en. O. O. I toward, in an address delivered 
at Cleveland, Ohio, paid to Xenia a very high tribute regarding 
the treatment of Federal troops. lie said there was no town 
anywhere in which the troops received such treatment as was 
given them in Xenia. and where greater kindness was shown 
them. It is a lad that no regiment ever passed through the town 
without being feasted. In fair weather long tables would be 
spread in a pasture adjoining the railroad and when the weather 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 69 

was inclement, the freighl house would be transformed into a 
banquet hall. Not satisfied with that, the loyal women of the 
town and surrounding country would prepare great baskets of 
provisions to send with the soldiers on their departure, ''in- 
good man, whose wife excelled in the art of making doughnuts, 
would go through the train laden with a bushel basket of the good 
home-made doughnuts, passing them out right and left with the 
recommendation, "My wife made them." Everybody aided in 
every possible way. Men who could not go to the front gave 
freely, not only of their abundance, but many of them deprived 
themselves of necessities that they might help the cause. School 
rooms were turned into depart; 1, mis of aid, and school children 
were provided with shingles and knives with which to scrape lint. 
Special mention might he made of many, many women who 
worked and prayed without ceasing throughout the long struggle. 
But one, in particular, must not he forgotten whose ability and 
strength made it possible for her to visit the hospital camp and 
soothe, with her prayers and mother hands, the dying hours of 
main- a soldier boy, and again, to bring into her home and nurse 
hack to health, others who might not have survived with hut the 
meager care that was sometimes all that could be given them in 
hospitals. Reference is made to Mrs. Elizabeth Farquer Patton. 

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 

Previous to the War of the Rebellion, with no fixed limit as 
to date, there was a constant trail of escaped slaves stealthily 
pursuing their way north and to freedom, often with only the 
north star to guide their foot-steps and an abounding faith in ( .oil 
and humanity to give them hope and courage. In 1831 a Ken 
tucky slave escaped from bondage and swam the < >hio river near 
Ripley, lie was closely followed by his master in a skiff, who 
had no trouble keeping him in sight until he landed, but once on 
shore the slave soon disappeared from view. A most diligent 
search failed to reveal the fugitive, and the disappointed slave 
owner, when asked as to what had become of his slave, said he 
thought 'die must have gone off on an underground road.** I he 
Story was repeated with a great deal of amusement and the inci- 



GREENE COUNTY 18< 

the name "Underground Railroad." Br. 
g slaves - many ; 

g routes ss ng the Ohio. 

all r Many exciting and thrilling 

are : . g and trans] rting g - -. and 

the ' g ngendered thereby. During the f 

and - = - in Xen 

Mr. East Markt - Many times a group 

g; th< in Mr. Mo:, 

fall, when his young 
Jairu - . then a mere lad. would conduct them to Green 

f the "Underground Ra in £ 

settlement near Selma. 
The > all by night and usually in a 

- the sig :" their approach would be the 

is - 
ahead warning friends of the time of the arrival, the communica- 

ystei - g^iage undersl 
e was v. - - 

5 

evening's mail you will 

:." bound in black. 
sal. please 

rs to 
G. \Y. W." 

2 

"innell: 
Unci. 

» of n\ -. Send 

arket and price. No back charg - 
- 

H." 

e, who had on his residenc 
- 
at purp • In 

ialect he inqu 

■ 

cky that a y 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 71 

placed upon his head, bul in-trad of putting a stop to the business 
it only increased it; and it was the means of a greal number of 
slaves being informed as to where friends mighl be found. 

Aboul this time a slave holder came to Xenia, stopping at the 
old Ewing I louse, in search of a slave who was hiding in this 
station. Bui the slave was sent out of town carrying over his 
shoulder a bushy sapling which partly concealed his features. 
\\ hen he reached the edge of town he was picked up and hurried 
t( i -a fety. 

There were no records Kept of these times. Everything 
done was necessarily secret and underhanded. In fact, it often 
meant social ostracism and the man who dared to do this work. 
as his conscience dictated, frequently lost friends in the doing. 

In the State of Ohio, previous to the efforts of Salmon I'. 
Chase, in L830, a negro had no rights that a white man was hound 
to respect. They were excluded from schools and could not tes- 
tify in court and it was a penal offense to give employment to a 
black or mulatto. Much of this condition existed until aboul 
1850 when man\' of the so called black laws were repealed. For 
-oine years previous to the Rebellion a number of families from 
southern state-, being impressed with the sin of the slave traffic, 
settled in this vicinity, freeing their slaves and for many of them 
purchasing homes in this county. Later, about 1856, the pur- 
chase of Tawawa Springs, at one time a fashionable summer re 
-on. and the establishing upon that site id' Wilberforce University 
brought to the count)- an influx of the better class of colored 
people. 

AMI SLAVERY C< INVENTION. 

The first anti-slavery convention held in Xenia met with such 
opposition that viewed in the light of the present day it seems al 
most incredible. A few copies of Dr. Jay's "Inquiry" and the 
"Liberator" published by William Lloyd Garrison, of Boston, 
came to Xenia. 

Among the early converts to the anti-slavery doctrine was 
the late Lew Samuel Wilson, from 1830 until 1856 pastor of the 



72 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

Associate, now the Second United Presbyterian Church of Xenia. 
He soon found that there were at least four of his acquaintances 
who shared in his convictions. Very slowly others came over to 
their way of thinking and through the efforts of this little body 
of men a few good speakers were procured from time to time to 
address anti-slavery meetings until finally the little group of en- 
thusiasts had the temerity to call an anti-slavery convention. 
Committees were appointed to make the necessary arrangements. 
The first and greatest difficulty encountered was the finding of a 
place of meeting. For a time they had been permitted the use of 
the Court Mouse but the further use of it for this purpose was 
refused the committee. Application was made to the deacons of 
the Associate Church, also the Associate Reformed, and in both 
instances met with prompt refusal. 

Public sentiment made it impossible for meetings to be held 
on the street and now the convention must be given up unless 
some citizen could be found who would be brave enough to offer 
his private grounds for the purpose. The Rev. Samuel Wilson 
was the only one who dared offer his home which was situated 
on East Market street on the lot now occupied by the First United 
Presbyterian Church. A platform was erected in the yard just 
about under the space now occupied by the pidpit of that church. 

While the convention was a success it was not held without 
great difficulties. A mob collected on the opposite side of the 
street and serious trouble would undoubtedly have resulted had 
it not been for the timely interference of a stalwart old black- 
smith and pump-maker by the name of John McClellan, who was 
possessed of a high sense of justice. Mr. McClellan stated that 
In- was in no sense in sympathy with this movement but he be- 
lieved in free speech. With club in hand he dared any man to 
cross the street and molest his preacher. And through his inter- 
vention was carried to a successful finish the first anti-slavery 
convention ever held in ( ireene County. It is impossible to fix 
tin exact date of this convention, but it was sometime previous 
to the organizing of the "Free-Soil" or "Liberty" party in 1846. 

Apropos of this movement of the people who had the courage 
of their convictions it might not be out of place to record here 



A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GREENE COUNTY. 7:: 

the name of Joseph Collins, of Bath Township, who, for more 
than twenty years, cast the only abolition vote in the township. 



Greene County possesses a silk banner of which she is justly 
proud. Its width at base is 6 feet 3 inches, tapering gracefully 
12 feet, where it forks abruptly. Its center i> white; on each 
side are three stripes of white, blue and mse, tapering from base 
to point. On one side in large gilt letters. "Ohio has senl 
291,952* of her gallant sons to the field," and on the other side, 
"Ohio true to the Union." This banner was given to Ohio in 
the winter of 1864 for having furnished the most troops accord- 
ing to its military population. The Governor of Ohio presented 
it to Greene County as having furnished the most of any county 
in the State. Lewis Post No. 347, G. A. R. of Xenia, is now the 
custodian of this much valued relic. 

: During the entire period of the war Ohio troops numbered 385,000. 



74 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE 
GREENE COUNTY. 



JOHN FRANCIS ORR. 




T is an invidious task to select 
from so many who have risen 
to prominence in their times 
the names of a few former 
citizens who, hv their preemi- 
nence, are entitled to honorable 
mention in this book. The 
list is foredoomed to be incom- 
plete, lint at the risk of leaving" 
out some who ought to be men- 
tioned, justice will be done to 
a few. 

The history of our county 
naturally divides into three periods: The time from the earliest 
tit lenient up to the year 1820 may be denominated the pioneer 
period; from 1820 to 1860, the period of construction; and from 
I860 to the present time, the modern period. Of each period 
there was a leader, whose sway was, indeed, disputed, but of 
whose primacy history will leave little doubt. 

( )) the pioneer period several might have claimed the title 
of leader. There was Col. John Paul, the keen-sighted land 
speculator, who, in his position as clerk of the county court ob- 
tained first knowledge of the decision of the associate judges as 
t< the location of the county seat, and who allowed no grass to 
grow under his feet while acquiring the title to the town site. 
Me it was who gave the count)- the court house site, and he was 
our member of .the first Constitutional Convention and of the first 



SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE MADE GREENE COUNTY. 75 

State senate. Mis shrewdness, energy, and business foresighl 
might easily have made him the leading spirit of his time; bul 
John Paul was a restless rover, and Greene County soon became 
too populous for his pioneer tastes; so in ISO' he removed to the 
newer wilderness of Indiana, where again he founded a city — 
the city of Madison, of the site of which city he was the owner. 
Mere again he was generous in the donation of sites for public 
purposes, and here he died and is buried. 

Of the other strong men of that period mention might be 
made of James and Moses ('oilier. James and George Galloway, 
William Maxwell, our first representative in the State legislature 
and an associate justice. James Barrett, also an associate justice, 
Owen Davis, whose house was the first capitol of the county, 
Peter Borders, Jacob Smith, long a member of the State legisla- 
ture, James Popenoe, Sr., and Peter, his brother. Andrew Read, 
William A. Beatty, tavern keeper and town director, Frederick 
and Chappel Bonner, Nathan Lamme, Joseph C. Vance, who 
laid out the town of Xenia, and whose son afterwards became the 
< rovernor of the State of Ohio, 1 lenrv I types, James Towler, Dr. 
Joseph Johnson, Richard Conwell, and Amasa Read. 

But, one name is impressed upon the history of the pioneer 
period a little more distinctly than any other — the name of Gen 
eral Benjamin Withernam one of the first group of associate 
justices, and long a leading citizen of the county. ( ieneral White- 
man was born in Philadelphia, Pa., March 6th, 1769, and prior 
to his settlement here had passed through the county three times 
with expeditionary forces against the Indians — in 1790, 1792, and 
1704. In 1799 he made permanent settlement, having previous!) 
married in Kentucky the daughter of ('wen Davis above men 
tinned. Mis first residence was at the original county seat on 
Beaver Creek, with his father-in-law, who operated a flouring 
mill. In 1805 he removed to Clifton, where he continued to 
reside until his death on July 1st, 1852. 

(ieneral Whiteman was a man of dignity and character. 
revered for his uprightness, and of greal influence in the new 
county. Me and his fellows were the men who fought the In- 
dians, delimited the county, laid out the towns ami townships. 



re, GREENE COUNTY 1803-1968. 

established the courts, hewed the forests, and erected a primitive 
civilization, which some of them lived many years to enjoy. 

During the period of construction many men came to the 
front to divide the honors of primacy, but facile princeps was 
Dr. Joshua Martin, born in Loudon County, Virginia, March 
23rd, 1791, died at Louisville. Ky.. November 30th, 1865. The 
greater part of his life was spent in this community. His indeed 
was a strong character, uniting with personal dignity, sterling 
integrity, and great professional skill, the arts of the political 
manager. Me was the Mentor of his political party, and the 
leader in every public enterprise during his long career, and as 
such became widely known among public men. 

Scarcely less prominent during the same period were Aaron 
Harlan, who served his district in Congress, and John Alexander 
— a man of the most rugged and positive character, the opposite 
in all things of Dr. Martin, though his lung-time friend. Their 
contemporaries were such men as John Ilivling, James B. Gard- 
iner. Major Robert Gowdy, Dr. George \Y. Stipp, S. W. Reeder, 
Josiah Grover, Samuel Kyle, Peter Pelham, Samuel Harry, Dan- 
iel Lewis, Joseph ( i. Lest. Sr., Michael Xunnemaker, Thomas 
Coke Wright. James A. Scott, William Ellsberry, a noted lawyer, 
Casper L. Merrick, inn-keeper and merchant, Lindsay Hogue, 
and Dr. Samuel Martin. 

The modern period, from 1860 down to the present day, 
produced many men who achieved prominence in the county, and 
some of them State, and even national, fame. Among the latter 
were Hon. James J. Winans, judge and congressman, and Hon. 
John Little, attorney general of the State, congressman and Com- 
missioner of Venezula Claims. John Little's name will ever be 
memorable to all of this generation as that of a man of strong 
intellect, of kind and generous disposition, a very able lawyer, and 
a man whose natural tastes led him to pursue successfully many 
mechanical and manufacturing enterprises, to the great benefit 
ot the community. In political affairs he was widely known, and 
his judgment was so highly respected that he was frequently 
called into counsel by governors of the State and presidents of 
the United Si 



some of Tin-: men who iiavi: made greene coUntY. :; 

Willi these men were associated such men as Captain Austin 
McDowell, E. !•'. Drake, John F. Patton, Col. John W. Lowe (the 
first Ohio line officer who fell in the War of the Rebellion), 
Erastus S. Nichols, Col. Robert Stevenson, Dr. C. II. Spahr, Col. 
Coates Kinney. John I'. Frazer, Dr. John W. Greene, W. B. Fair 
child, Joseph W . King, Thomas P. Townsley, Roswell F. Howard, 
Judge Moses Barlow, Captain Albert Galloway, Benoni Nesbitt, 
John B. Allen, Isaac M. Barrett, Dr. George Watt, Brinton 
Baker, David and Eli Millen, James C. McMillan, Aniel Rbdgers, 
Alfred Johnson, and main- others, some of whom survive to this 
day. 

These, briefly, arc- the men who, with man)- others who might 
properly have been mentioned, have made Greene County. In 
discharging the common-place duties of life they have builded 
a civilization which will endure long aider the personality of each 
has passed from the memory of men. It is fitting thai there 
should be lure recorded in this commemorative book some note 
of the names of these worthies, at least, ''lest we forget." 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



MASSIE'S CREEK. 



WILBUR D. NESBIT. 



I've just been wondering, Bill, if you remember Massie's crick — 
Or "creek" they call it nowadays — with sumac growing thick 
Along the banks, and willows that bent down to make a shade 
Above the dreaming: shallows where we bovs one time would wade. 





Remember how it used to loaf sedately through the town 
And out into the pasture lands, and then would hurry down 
Between the cliffs, and how it sang a song to you and me 
That told us of the outer world, the rivers and the sea? 



I've just been wondering, Bill, that's all — if you still hear it sing, 
II you can shut your eyes and see the spray that it would fling 
Above tin- rocks, until it sparkled on the hanging ferns 
That nodded from the mossy cliffs in hidden nooks and turns. 



MASSIE'S creek. 



7i» 



Remember how we used to throw our hare selves down, and lie 
A-looking through the checker-work of good green leaves and sky, 
And count the cloudships sailing through the sea of limpid hhu — 
Ah, then wc did not know how much that meant for me and von ! 

The sunshine shuttled through the leaves and jeweled all the stream 
As laughter sometimes bubbles through the mazes of a dream, 
And we knew not that roundabout the big world waited then 
To rob us of our boyish ways when we should grow to men. 

I've just been wondering, Bill, if you can hear old Massie's crick 
Call softly through the summer days? And does your heart heat 

< | nick 
In answer? Does your mind leap back into the long ago 
And laugh and sing and dream again'the days we used to know"'' 



4 





A DESCRIPTION OF TIIK COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS, si 




— — i — - 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND 
ITS TOWNSHIPS. 

Greene County is a member of that very fertile group of 
counties in southwestern Ohio drained by the two Miami Rivers 
and their tributaries. In its average value of farm lands per 
acre ($31.63 according to the census of 1900), Greene County 
stands twelfth among the 88 counties of the State, and the 
counties which outrank her include within their limits the cities 
of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Akron, Canton. 
Springfield, and Hamilton, which of course affect favorably the 
prices of land about them. The county is traversed from north 
to south by the wide alluvial valley of the Little .Miami; its north- 
west corner is crossed by the Mad River valley; and connecting 
these two is a broad valley, excavated ages ago by the Mad River 
when its course was different from the present, but now occupied 
b\ the little stream called Beaver Creek. 

Greene County lies within the area covered by the Glacial 
Drift. This is a deposit of clay, sand, gravel, and bowlders 
which, geologists agree, was carried southward from the region 
of the lakes, and deposited in its present position, by glaciers. 
The weathering of the drift produced the county's fertile soils. 
These soils include: (1) The black upland soil, excellent for 
corn and blue grass, formed by the weathering of the drift where 
it lay in Hat tracts, and found especially in Ross and the other 



82 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



eastern townships. (2) The common upland clay soil (often 
called "oak land" because various oaks, especially white oak, natu- 
rally grow on it). It is derived from the drift where the surface 
was sloping, and is a very durable soil and productive when prop- 
erly cultivated. (3) The rather dark-colored and very productive 
soil known as "sugar land," on which grow naturally not only 
sugar maples but also ash. hickory, walnut, etc. In some places 
it is called "mulatto" soil. It was formed from gravels on the 
highlands. (4) The bottom lands of the valleys, deposited by 
the agency of the streams. 











CEDARVILLE CLIFFS. 
The Kails from above. 



Underneath the drift, in a typical section of the county, lies 
whal geologists have called the Niagara group of rocks, consisting 
oi limestones interspersed with shales, and belonging to the Upper 
Silurian period. It is found over the entire eastern half of the 
count) and also in a small area in Beaver Creek Township. Its 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 83 

beds of limestone, in descending order, are": the Guelpb or Cedar 
ville, the Springfield, the West Union, and the Dayton. The two 
Former arc chiefly valuable for lime and road metal and die- two 
latter for building purposes, although much common building 
stone has been taken from the Springfield bed. The large output 
of lime from the Cedarville kilns comes from the Cedarville bed, 
while the Dayton stone is quarried at New Jasper and elsewhere 
and may be seen in the new Episcopal church in Xenia and 
in many other buildings in the county. Each product excels in 




CEDARVILLE CLIFFS. 
The Pas--. 

its own lield and finds a wide market. Separating the Dayton 
and Wot Union beds is a layer of shale, besl seen on the Nefl 
Grounds at Yellow Springs. It is this peculiar arrangement o! 
strata— soft shale capped by lime-tone— that produced equall) 
the gorge- of the Little Miami and Massie's (reck in Greene 



I 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



County and the gorge of the Niagara River. The water, wearing 
away the shale more easily than the overlying limestone, under- 
mines the latter till at length a portion breaks off, and this process 
is repeated many times as the falls recede up stream, leaving 
below them an ever-lengthening ravine. Thus the Falls of Ni- 
agara and the little cascade at Yellow Springs are very closely 
related indeed, for they fall over the same bed of limestone and 
gnaw away at the same stratum of shale at their base. The 
scenery at Clifton and Yellow Springs, described elsewhere, is 
well known ; the "Cedarville cliffs," on Massie's Creek, are less 
accessible and less striking, perhaps, hut no whit behind the others 
in beauty. 




CEDARVILLE CLIFFS. 
Tickli Uff Ruck. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COl XTV AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 85 

Next below the Niagara group lies the Clinton, and near 
New Jasper both are quarried, the Niagara i Dayton ) for building 
and the Clinton for road metal. The Clinton is also Upper 

Silurian, but beneath it is a series of limestones and shales which 
geologists call the Hudson or Cincinnati and which they assign 
to the Lower Silurian, or Ordovician, period. These rocks are 
not exposed in the higher, eastern half of the county, as they are 
there covered by the Clinton and Niagara, but in the western 
part, where the upper rocks have keen ground away, the Hudson 
series is found immediately below the blankel of drift and may 
be seen plainly in ravines and cuts, as for instance about Goe's 
Station. The Hudson limestone abounds in fossils; it has furn- 
ished some building stone. These are the oldest rocks which may 
be found on the surface of Greene County; beneath them, of 
course, lie still older ones, some of which have been penetrated 
to some depth by wells in the effort to find deposits of oil and gas. 
hut so far without paying results. 

The county has an area of about 460 square miles, a popula- 
tion ( in 1900) of 31,613, and a tax value | in 1907 I t >i $19,302,291, 
corresponding to about $40,000,000 actual value. Its principal 
crops in 1907 were as follows: corn, 2,588,294 bushels (average, 
46 bushels to the acre) : wheat, 721,592 bushels ( 17 per acre) : 
oats, 109,236 bushels; potatoes, 70,561 bushels; tomatoes, 19,685 
bushels; rye, 12,227 bushels; barley. 4,085 bushels; clover hay. 
721 tons; other hay. 2?,75() tons; alfalfa. 302 tons; tobacco. 
627,908 pounds; eggs, 750,995 dozen; maple syrup. 5,745 gallon. . 
In April, 1908, there were in the count)', in round numbers, 10,000 
horses. 15,000 cattle, 18,000 sheep, and 32,000 bogs. In the 
raising of fancy stock the county holds a remarkable record, 
which is told of in the special article by Mr. I >. E. Bradfute. 

The Greene County Agricultural Society was organized in 
1839 and has held a county fair annually ever since. The origi- 
nal grounds were between Columbus Avenue and Church Street. 
in Xenia, but for many years the fair has been held in leased 
grounds on the northwestern edge of the city. It seems probable 
that the county will soon purchase these grounds. Last year the 
Society's receipts were almost $10,000, and nearly as much was 




SOME COUNTY INSTITUTIONS. 



Photos by Canby. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AM) ITS TOWNSHIPS. 87 

paid out, including $8,700 in premiums and racing purses. The 
fair lasts four days and the exhibits arc always notable, as befits 
the champion stock county. The records for the half mile track 
arc: pace, 2 : 1 1 T 4 ; trot, 2:15. The Society has between six and 
seven hundred members. 

There are in the county twelve townships and thirty voting 
precincts. In politics the count)- lias been Republican ever since 
the organization of the Republican party. The normal pluralit) 
is in the neighborhood of 2000. but owing to factional trouble in 
the dominant party Matthew R. Denver, Democratic, came within 
six votes of carrying the county in 1^06. 




CEDARVILLE CLIFFS. 
The Rapids, 




FAIRFIELD. 

Dayton Street. " The Ohio Exchange " (a relic of stage coach days). 

Street Scene. 
Looking North from the M. E. Church Tower. 

Photo by O. A. Wilson. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 89 

BATH T< >WNSHIP. 
Rev. II. B. Belmer. 

This township is the northwest corner of the county. It 
was organized in 1807 and extended originally two miles further 
north, into what is now Clarke County. It has eight churches, so 
located that all tin: people arc within three or four miles oi ;i 
church. The I lath Presbyterian church is in the western pari 
of the township; the rest are located in towns. There is also a 
township high school, about half a mile from Fairfield, central in 
the township. It occupies a fine building erected only a few 
years ago. Both ( )sborn and Fairfield also have their own high 
schools. 

Osborn is an incorporated village of about 1000 inhabitants. 
Traveling men say it is one of the best kept towns of its size in 
the State. It has cement sidewalks, graveled streets, water and 
electric light, and tire department. Both the Erie and Big Four 
Railroads pass through it. as also die Ohio Electric Railway, 
which is now working to have a continuous line from Cincinnati 
to Toledo and run through cars between these points. A visitor 
will notice the large number of beautiful homes with their sur- 
roundings kept in neat trim. This is largely due to die fact that 
most (if these homes arc occupied by their owners, and most of 
the renters even follow their good example. The village is ten 
miles from Dayton, making it convenient for many employed in 
Dayton to live here. A number of school teachers employed in 
the township and elsewhere also live here. There arc four 
churches in the place. The Lutheran church was organized in 
the Fairfield Methodist church in 1848. In 1850 the railroad 
now called the Big Four was built and the town of Osborn began 
to spring up; some foresaw that Osborn would become the more 
important town and the Lutheran congregation was transferred 
to that place. But as there were members of various other de- 
nominations in that neighborhood a union church was built in 
1853. The Lutherans used the building half of the time only till 
1872, when they secured entire control and ownership of it. This 
church was remodeled and virtually rebuilt in 1898 and is now a 




I. Ill l.i: MIAMI ABOVE YKLI.IIH SPRINGS. 
MAD RIVER IX WINTER. 
Photo by 0. A. Wilson. 
THE SWIMMING HOLE, OSBORN. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 91 

very neat and churchly structure. The Methodisl Episcopal 
church was organized in 1858, being an offspring of the Fairfield 
church. Its building was also reconstructed and added to some 
years ago and it is in a prosperous condition. The Presbyterian 
church was organized in 1865 and has a substantial brick building 
affording a very good audience room. All these churches are 
located on the main did residence streel which, though its proper 
name is Johnson Street, is often called Church Street. The 
Catholic church, though having a substantial membership, is gen- 
erally served by priests coming from Dayton. 

The four groceries and two dry-goods stores of this place 
are well stocked with first class goods, supplying both town and 
country for miles around. Osborn also has three flouring mills 
and two elevators. These mills have the best of modern machin- 
ery and make the highest grade of roller-process Hour. The 
elevators handle and ship great quantities of corn; very little 
wheat is shipped away, as the country around does not furnish 
enough for the mills, which are kept busy day and night the year 
around. Two of these mills are run by water power, furnished 
by a dam in Mad River a mile above the town. Great quantities 
of both hard and soft coal are shipped here for use in the town 
and surrounding country- There is also a whip factory employ- 
ing some thirty hands (there are only four whip factories in the 
whole Stale of Ohio). This factory makes whips in price from 
$1.50 a dozen to $25 or more for a single whip. The benevolent 
orders are represented by a lodge of the !.().( ). F., the K. of I'.. 
and the J. ( ). U. A. M. There is a weekly paper, The Osborn 
Local. 

Fairfield is the oldest village in the township, with a some- 
what peculiar history. Settled in \7'> t >, in the early days — earlier 
than 1840 — it was a thriving, growing town. Such it would have 
continued to he hut for one mistake of its people and neighboring 
farmers. When the now Big Four Railroad was being located 
they wanted to pass through Fairfield. Now the general direc- 
tion of this road from Dayton to Springfield is northeast, cutting 
diagonally all farms it passes through. The fanners did not want 
their line farms spoiled in this way, and they fought off the rail 




OSBOKN, 
M. E. Church. Street Scenes. School Building. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 93 

road successfully. As a result < >sborn sprang up and became the 
flourishing town Fa ; rfield would have been ; and instead of merel) 
standing- still, Fairfield even lost some of the business it formerly 
had. Tt had no railroad convenience till the F^ayton and Spring 
field electric road was built through it. The population of Fair 
field is given in the last census as 312. It lias a Methodist and 
a Reformed church. The Methodist church seems to have been 
the earliest organized, though its dale has not been ascertained. 
The Reformed church was organized in 1843, and is the offspring 
of the Byron church. It has been in a prosperous condition from 
the beginning, having begun in a great revival, a spiritual impulse 
felt to this day. The village also has a lodge of ( )<ld Fellows, 
and Steele Post No. 623 Dept. of Ohio G. A. K. This Tost 
attends to the decorating of soldier graves on Memorial Day in 
eight different burying grounds. 

Byron, on the Yellow Springs pike, is an old hamlet thai 
has less business and importance than formerly in earlier times. 
Its dozen or so houses are now without the store, post office, and 
saddler's shop of former days, but a blacksmith shop remains. 
Byron's chief honor is the church and cemetery near it. Mere 
are buried many of the old settlers, reaching back even into the 
18th century. The Byron Reformed church dates back to a very 
early day; it was formerly a union church, the Lutherans owning 
and using it jointly with the Reformed. 

(Editor's note: — Fairfield may take comfort in the reflection 
that if it has fallen behind in the race for population and business 
it has preserved its fine old houses and streets and is the mosl 
picturesque town in the county. We regret that the views do not 
give an adequate idea of its charm. Since 1904 it has held an 
annual reunion and home-coming). 

BEAVER CREEK TOWNSHIP. 

Beaver Creek Township is one of the original four, and 
formerly extended as far north as Lake Erie. It is a beautiful 
valley, fertile, well timbered, rolling and picturesque, noted for 
its fine farms. The high ridge separating the waters of Beaver 
Creek and Mad River is a particularly tine fruit belt, where good 




ZIMMERMAN. SHOTJP'S. 

INInN SCHOOL BtJELDZNG ( XENIA TP.i 
K. "1 p. HALL. ALPHA. >TKEET ^1 ENT. ALPHA. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 95 

peaches do well. The Pennsylvania and C. II. and I). Railroads 

and the Dayton and Xenia Traction road cross the valley. The 
pike- arc well kept and the scenery is tine. 

Beaver Creek Township is the cradle of < rreene County. In 
its little log court house in 1803 the county was organized. There 
was the first administration of justice, the first exercise of suf- 
frage through the ballot box, and the first legal punishment of 
crime. There was the first mill north of Cincinnati where corn 
was ground for the settlers. It was built by Owen Davis in 
1798 and called the Alpha Mill from the first letter of the Greek 
alphahet. The court house, mill and two blockhouses, erected 
for defense, were near enough together to he inclosed in a 
stockade should the Indians become troublesome. The old log 
court house was the first licensed tavern in the county. It was 
purchased with the surrounding acreage in 1827 by Mr. John 
Harbine. He and Mr. Needles laid out the town of Alpha in 
1854. When what is now the Pennsylvania railroad was built 
Mr. Harbine gave the land required and the station was named 
Harbine. It was a lively manufacturing center with its distillery, 
flour, cotton, woolen, grist, saw and oil mills and did a large 
tobacco, grain and shipping business. 

From the first mill and the first barrel of flour which was 
marked "Alpha," the name has clung to the place. There are, 
in the town, a nice brick church, a school, a post-office, coal office 
and two stores and at upper Alpha a large K. of P. Hall, black- 
smith shop, and Beaver Creek Township High School built in 
1888. The population of Alpha is about 200. The waters of 
Beaver Creek have turned the wheels of the grist mills for more 
than a century and the old dam is an attractive place for picnics 
and fishing parties, hut the site of the blockhouse- is no longer 
indicated and the valley is peaceful, productive and beautiful. 

Trebeins, formerly known as Pinckneyville, Frost Station 
and Beaver Station, is two miles nearer to Xenia. For man} 
years a large distillery and milling business was done there. The 
distillery has now given place to a tobacco warehouse. A German 
Reformed church and a school house are midway between Alpha 
and Trebeins. 




- 

- 

LE. 

- LE. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 97 

Zimmerman is about two miles west of Alpha on the Dayton 

pike. It has a blacksmith shop and grocery, a school and two 
Dutiker churches. The population is aboul lot). The railroad 
station is a quarter of a mile distant and is called Shoup's; there 
is one store there and about fifteen people. S. 

CAESAR'S CREEK T( )WNSHIP. 

This township, one of the four into which the county was 
divided in 1803, originally included all the southeastern section 
of the county but has been successively reduced to its presenl 
limits by the formation of other townships. PAINTERSVILLE, the 
only town, was laid out in September, 1837, for the proprietor, 
Jesse Painter. It is ten miles southeast of Xenia. It has a 
Methodist Protestant church, a school, two stores, barber, wagon, 
and blacksmith shops, restaurant, and saw mill. Societies are 
represented by the Knights of Pythias and the Junior ( )rder, each 
with its auxiliary of ladies ( the Pythian Sisters and the Daughters 
of America respectively ). Population, about 125. 

CEDARVILLE T< >WNSHIP. 
F. A. Jurkat. 

Cedarville Township was organized in 1850 from portions 
of Xenia, Miami, and Ross, to which fact its singular outline is 
due. Ihe natural antipathy to new things led to a protest on the 
part of the inhabitants of the older townships, which however 
was df no avail. It lies entirely within the Virginia Military 
District, and incidentally the Cedarville School District treasury 
is benefited annually to the extent of about fifty dollars from the 
Federal Government — a relic of the famous Revolutionary War 
grant. 

The area of the township is 23,000 acres. The soil is very 
fertile, and underlaid with limestone, which is the hasis of one 
of the chief industries. The chief stream is Massif's (reek, 
named after a noted Indian fighter. In its efforts to reach the 
Little Miami it has cut its way through the rock, forming cliffs 
fort) feet deep and a mile long, one of the most picturesque 




CKDAHVILLE. 



Xenia \vi'iiii(.. 
(Photo by Downing.) 



The Reid Home. 

(Photo by W. P. McKay ) 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 99 

scenes in America. Along its course arc a fort oi the prehistoric 
races and a mound which occupies a prominent place in the land 
scape. (See the article by Prof. \\ . K. Moorehead). 

The first settlers were John and Thomas Townsley, who came 
here from Kentucky in 1801. The) were soon reenforced by a 
colony of Scotch Covenanters from the Chester District oi South 
Carolina, who left there because of their antipathy to slavery. 
These immigrants were a great reenforcement to the struggling 
congregation of Reformed Presbyterians, or Covenanters, which 
had been established in 1804. In spite of a division in 1833 into 
"( )ld" and "New Lights." these congregations have vitally deter- 
mined the religious life of the township. 

The village of Cedarville was laid off by Jesse Newport in 
1816. long before the township was formed. It has been vari- 
ously known as Newport's Mill, llanna's Store, the "Burgh," and 
Milford. To avoid confusion of post offices and perpetuate the 
memory of the cedars, the present name was adopted in 1834. 
The population, which was 1189 in 1900, is now about 1300. It 
is on the 1'.. C, C. and St. L. Railroad. 

ddie interests of town and township are closely allied in all 
matters, religious, civil, and industrial. There are m\ churches 
in the village: the Reformed Presbyterian, Xew School, founded 
1804; Reformed Presbyterian, Old School, founded 1833; United 
Presbyterian, founded 1830; Methodist Episcopal, founded 1804; 
Colored Baptist, founded 1830; and the A. M. E. church. Cedar 
ville College is described elsewhere. 

The first school house in the township was erected in 1806; 
the first in the village was started in 1823. There are now eight 
school houses in the township, and the village has a high school. 

The first newspaper, the "Enterprise," was founded in 1876. 
It was succeeded by the "Herald." which still flourishes. In 1902 
was founded the ' Record." 

Among prominent buildings may he mentioned the township 
hall, built in 1888, and the public library, representing a donation 
of $11,000 to Cedarville College by Andrew Carnegie. 

Aside from the cereal products, the farmers of Cedarville 
Township take pride in their fine breeds of cattle, sheep and hogs, 




School Building. 



CEDARVILLE. 
Alford Memorial. Town Hall. 



Main Street. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. L01 

which have taken many a trophy. (Sec the article by O. E. 
lira. If utc ). 

Among the industries of the village arc the elevators of 1 ). 
S. Ervin and Kerr & Hastings Bros., the Ervin lime kilns, the 
Tarbox Lumber Co., and the Hagar Strawboard and Taper Co. 
The latter employs over sixty bands, makes a carload of paper a 
day, and hunts for straw as far as Kentucky. 

But the greatest product of Cedarville Township is its citi- 
zens. Pioneers are always the soul of enterprise, else they would 
not become pioneers. Coming from the older settlements of the 
East, and reen forced by the Scotch Covenanters, they put forth a 
civilizing energy which has not yet spent itself, hut has been car- 
ried to greater heights by their descendants. Most prominent is 
the Hon. Whitelaw Reid, Ambassador to the Court of St. fame-, 
and for a third of a century editor of the Xew York Tribune. 
Without the honors which the world has bestowed, he would still 
h_ highly deserving as a model son, especially in the care he be- 
stowed upon his widowed mother during her last years. As a 
mark of affection he keeps the old homestead in a condition that 
makes it a place of interest to visitors from far and near. Many 
other sons of the township have been prominent in civil lite. 
among them being U. S. Senator James II. Kyle. Judge Samuel 
Kyle, and Gen. Robert Jackson. 

Cedarville was well represented in the War of 1812 and the 
Mexican War. and in the Civil War she was the banner township 
of the banner county of the banner state, in the number of soldiers 
sent out. 

JEFFERSON T( >WNSHIP. 

(Mr. R. C. Stewart, a blacksmith who has been at the Same 
-land during the entire 60 years of the township's history, K 
authority for the historical part of the following.) 

Jefferson Township, in the southeast corner of the county, 
was organized in 1858. being taken from Silver Creek Township. 
The name was suggested by Peter Bowermaster, who was an 
ardent admirer of Thomas Jefferson. BowERSyiLLE, the only 
town, is situated on the C. & C. branch of the L). T. & I. Railroad. 




BOVVERSVILLE. 

Maysville Street. 

Scenes along the O. S. Railroad. 

M. E. Church. 



Photus by Huseey. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. L03 

6 miles south of Jamestown and IS miles from Xenia. At the 
time it was laid off by Christopher 11.1 lussey and others, in 1848, 
there were three or four houses there. The name is said by some 
to have been taken from that of Peter Bowermaster, hut in 
reality it was suggested by D. L. Reaves, who helped lay the 
town off, in reference to the abundant shade. In 1850 a M. P. 
church which was on the John Ross farm was moved to the town 
(a new building took its place about 25 years ago). A little later. 
a M. E. church (new building. 1902) and a Christian church 
(recently rebuilt) were established. Bowersville also has a six- 
room brick school building, a township house, post office, bank, 
sawmill, two elevators, two hotels, restaurant, liver)- stable, tele- 
phone office, barber shop, three blacksmith shops, anil 12 stores. 
Population, 1900, official, 370; 1908, estimated. 425. 

MIAMI TOWNSHIP. 
Charles H. Ellis. 

Miami Township was organized June 8, 1808. It was 
formed from Bath and Xenia Townships and derived its name 
from the Little Miami River which flows through a considerable 
portion of its territory. This township is one of the most fertile 
in the State and contains a number of streams and considerable 
timber. Some of the finest natural scenery in the country is 
found along the banks of the Little Miami River and its tribu- 
taries. The township contains two villages, Clifton in the eastern 
section and Yellow Springs in the western. 

Lewis Davis, whose home was near the big Yellow Spring 
on the Neff Grounds, is supposed to have been the first settler. 
He came here about 1799 and lived several years and surveyed 
considerable property. The first township officers were elected 
in 1816. In the early times there were but few roads and these 
were scarcely traversable. The State road from Columbus to 
Cincinnati, via Clifton and Yellow Springs and Springfield was 
most generally used. In 1820 good land could be purchased from 
$3.00 to $6.00 an acre and laborers received ?>7 cents a day. 

Grinnell's Mill is one of the few remaining landmarks of the 



104 



OKEENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



early days and is still in operation by Mr. Frank Grinnell, Sr. 
A little farther up the river from Grinnell's is the famous River- 
side Park n<>\\ owned by Mr. John Bryan. This park contains 
over 500 aero of meadow, woods, river, springs' and cascades. 




WHITEHALL. 



The wildest and most beautiful scenery of the township is located 
in this park along the Little Miami River. The largest farm 
barn in the State of Ohio is located at Riverside Park. It was 
built by Mr. Bryan. It is 206 feet long, 120 feet wide, 75 feet 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS, lor. 

high. An L has been joined to the barn and ii is about S3 feet 
by 50 feet. The first story of the barn is buill of stone and is a 
magnificent piece of masonry. A part of the building contains 
five stories. It is equipped with running water and all modern 
impr< >vements. 

Whitehall, the present residence of Mr. E. S. Kelly, has been 
an ideal country home for over half a century, and its hospitality 
has always been in keeping with its halls and numerous spacious 
rooms and the extensive grounds surrounding it. It was built 
in 1K46-7 after the Colonial style of architecture, similar to thai 
of the White Bouse at Washington. The house stands on high 
ground in the midst of a grove of handsome black walnut trees. 
From this grove was obtained the only lumber used in the erection 
of the house and for this reason the place for many years was 
known as Walnut Hall. At present the house is surrounded by 
a magnirieent grove of young walnut trees covering a park oi 
about twenty acres in extent. About 350 yards to the west lies 
a beautiful lake, making a landscape view as picturesque as can 
be found anywhere. 

The main part of the house is built of brick which were made 
in a kiln near by. The house was erected by Judge Aaron Har- 
lan and he frequently entertained many distinguished friends and 
guests. Air. Kelly has remodeled it with many improvements. 
Many acres have been added to the original farm until it now 
contains 1100 acres of park and meadow, of woods and fields. 

YELLOW SPRINGS. 

On the northern border of the County, near the headwaters 
of the Little Miami River, is situated the beautiful and classical 
village of Yellow Springs, which takes its name from the cele- 
brated yellow spring located in the famous X c- ft" Grounds park. 
This spring is strongly impregnated with iron, magnesia, lime and 
silicious matter, and the iron gives a yellow tinge to everything 
over which it passes. 

There is a mystic fascination about the place. The healing 
waters of the Yellow Spring were known to the Indians long 
before the first white settlers came to make their homes in the 



106 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



wilderness. The flow of water is nearly 110 gallons a minute, 
at a temperature always the same, winter and summer, and in the 
language of the Indians, "cool as the morning air and with the 
golden tint of the setting sun." A short distance east of the 
spring is a mound of stone and earth which is no doubt the work 




THE LITTLE MIAMI 

Above Yellow Springs. 



of a prehistoric race. It is now crowned with a summer house 
and always attracts the attention of visitors. The Indians who 
succeeded the Mound Builders evidently set a high value on the 
spring, for it was located midway between the two famous settle- 
ments of the Shawnees, namely Oldtown. five miles to the south, 
where were located their most valued corn fields; and Mad River 
village, six miles to the north, where the famous Tecumseh was 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 107 

born. The trail connecting, these two points passed the spring 
and was plainly visible to the early settlers. It passed very near 
the present site of Antioch College and descended into the glen 
by a break in a rocky wall, which is still used for a fool path. 

Lewis Davis was the first white man known to have lived 
here. He came from Cincinnati to Dayton on a trading expedi- 
tion in the year 1799, and while there he learned from an Indian 
of the great yellow spring and the beautiful country surrounding 
it. He immediately went to Old Town and followed the old In- 
dian trail up to Yellow Springs where he camped for several 
days. In the fall of the year he built a log cabin a short distance 
east of the spring and surveyed considerable land in the surround- 
ing territory. He often described the place to be a garden spot 
of health and beauty in a vast wilderness. Other white men 
hearing of the marvelous grandeur of the place came and built 
cabins in this vicinity and the place was known as Forest Village. 
About 1820 General Whiteman laid off a number of lots north of 
the spring, which were named Ludlow. A number of log houses 
and several frame ones were erected. A sawmill was erected 
near the stone bridge. About this time there also appeared a 
Colony of communists called Owenites, numbering over two hun- 
dred people. They erected a large building as a common resi- 
dence, close to the cascade in the Xeff Grounds. They worked 
in common and divided the proceeds of their labor equally, and in 
fact seemed to skim along in a rosy imagination of a self- 
established heaven-on-earth, where all things were equal and the 
luxuries as existing at that time belonged to the most common as 
well as the best. This free-for-all style however did not last long. 
Consequently, we bud this colon}' of antitolstoic thinkers mat- 
tered to the four winds, after a residence of only two vears. 
However, other people came to live in their places and in a short 
time there was quite a village built up here. 

Among the most prominent of the early settlers were Elisha 
Mills and his son, Judge William Mills. They owned large tracts 
of land in and around the village of Yellow Springs. In the 
year 180 l > Elisha Mills erected a residence on what is now known 
as the Old Yellow Springs Mouse ground. It was afterwards 




THE ULEN AT YELLOW SPRINGS. 

The Yellow Spring. (Photo b.v Stretcher.) 

Pompey's Pillar. (Photo by Earl Richardson.) 
The Qpper Kail-. (Phot i bj Dr. Hewitt.) 

The Lower Falls, i Photo by Robert Swaby.) 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 109 

enlarged and used as a tavern, a Mr. Gardner being the first 
proprietor. Yellow Springs soon gained national prominence as 
a health and summer resorl and thousands of people from all 
over the country came and visited here annually, to drink from 
the waters of the great yellow spring and enjoy the beauty of die 
cool groves and picturesque glens near by. 

In 1853, Judge William Mills engaged the services of a sur- 
veyor and laid off a tract of land comprising 350 acres now in 
eluded within the corporate limits of Yellow Springs. Lots sold 
at prices ranging from $150 to $500. Judge Mills reserved a 
tract of land comprising about twenty aero in the center of Yel- 
low Springs on what is known as the Lawn, now occupied by 
Williams Means and his family. Judge .Mills also donated 
grounds for schools and churches and he was called the founder 
of Yellow Springs. The village was incorporated in 185(1 and 
[saac Kershner was chosen as the first mayor. The village was 
laid out on a grand scale in which are thirty-seven streets, six 
of which are over a mile in length. The physical features of die 
village are unsurpassed anywhere. The Xeff Grounds I 'ark. 
Sheldon's Glen, Taylor's Glen, Grinnell's Lark. The Lawn or 
Means' Lark, (lien Forest Cemetery and the Antioch College 
campus make Yellow Springs a beauty spot upon the face of 
Mother Nature. You will never find a place more richly endowed 
with natural beauty and healthful climate, with beautiful tree-. 
glens, springs, cascades, cliffs and gorges than Yellow Springs. 

It is not surprising that this place has attracted people 
from all parts of the country. Just opposite the village of 
Yellow Springs, two small streams unite whose waters a mile 
away empty into the Little Miami River. Through beds of lime 
stone, in a dee]) ravine or glen, lies the course of these streams, 
skirted along by high projecting cliffs and huge disrupted masses 
of rock, affording an enchanting variety of scenery. One of 
these outlying masses is known as Pompey's Pillar. Being an 
immense rock weighing fifteen or twenty tons, the upper surface 
almost as smooth and level as a table and easily accommodating 
twenty people, it affords a popular resorl for visitors desiring a 



110 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



view of the valley below. This stone is poised upon a pyramid 
of rocks about eighteen feet high. 

Another curious formation in the Neff Grounds is the Devil's 
Wash Basin formed in solid rock in the bed of the stream a short 
distance above the "Cascade." It is twelve inches deep and six 




. 






A Bit of Natural Landscape Gardening on the Little 
Miami above Yellow Springs. 



feet in diameter with edges as smooth as if carved by hand. 

A short distance below this basin is a cascade about twelve 
feel in height which affords a very pretty sight as the water goes 
leaping over the rocks into the deep ravine below, sending out a 
sparkling mist upon the ferns, flowers and fragrant honeysuckles 
hanging from the adjacent cliffs. Below the Cascade is the Mag- 
netic Spring discovered after the Mood of 1886. Further down 
the gorge is the old "Indian Silver Mine," which in former years 



A DESCRIPTION OF THK COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. Ill 

was worked considerably but never paid very well. Below this 
mine two streams unite at a point known as Lovers' Lane. It 
consists of a lovely shady walk in the grove above, overlooking 
the two streams and affording a magnificent landscape view. 

On October 19, 1878, Messrs. Jesse Taylor and I). C. Duncan 
discovered the Antioch bone cave in the Neff Grounds, a short 
distance from Fompey's Pillar. It faces the south, is about four 
feet high and three feet wide, and extends into the cliffs aboul 
fifteen feet. Skeletons of a child and of several kinds of animals 
were found therein. The child was supposed to belong to some 
prehistoric race. 

The Lake in the Xeff Grounds covers about ten acres ,,i' 
ground and is a perfect gem set between high bluffs and wooded 
hills and is an attractive place for boating and bathing. 

The Old Xeff House was erected on a bluff near the Yellow 
Spring in 1840 and for years was crowded with visitors from all 
over the Lnited States. It burned down in the sixties and a new 
Xeff House was built in 186 ( )-70. The new building was four 
and a half stories high, contained three hundred rooms, and cost 
over $100,000. It had quite a run for several seasons. In 1892 
it was torn down and shipped to Cincinnati. Just south of the 
Xeff Grounds is Sheldon's (lien in which, in 1848, the Water- 
Cure Hotel was erected by Drs. Chaney and Herman. This 
hotel was a famous health resort and enjoyed a national reputation 
for several vears. It burned down in 1856 and was never re- 
built. 

In 1850 a convention of ministers of the Christian denomina 
tion assembled at Marion, Xew York, and after long deliberation 
decided to erect a college of high character. A committee was 
appointed to secure a location. Judge William Mills and a lew 
citizens of Yellow Springs came to the front ottering twenty acres 
of -round and $30,000 in cash to secure the College here. Their 
offer was accepted and the work began in 1852 and was finished 
in thirty-seven months. Horace Mann of .Massachusetts was 
chosen first president and under hi- leadership the institution 
flourished and gained national prominence. (See the article on 
Antioch College). 




Photos In Stren hi 

YELLOW SPRINGS. 

Pre byterian Chnrcli. Opera lions,.. 

Little Antioch." Midi School. Campus Entrance, Antiocb. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 113 

Mr. William Wff. of Cincinnati, purchased "The Glen," now 
known as the WIT Grounds, in 1841. He brought with him Mr. 
Frank Haffner, who acted as manager of the grounds for a greal 
many years. Mr. Neff only spending a portion of his time here. 
The property lias now passed into the hands of Mr. Theodore 
Neff, who is conducting it as a picnic and pleasure resort. 

( >f the early settlers of Yellow Springs, nearly all have passed 
to the Greal Beyond. Mr. Samuel Cox, who was horn here 7? 
years ago, is still living. Me remembers when Yellow Springs 
was a vast wilderness when there was not a house between the 
old Yellow Springs House and the Currie place south of town. 
lie has witnessed the growth of the village from a few log huts 
to a modern up-to-date town with over four miles of cement side 
walks, electric railway, two telephone systems, telegraph lines, 
railroad, express, hank, modern postoffice with rural free delivery, 
opera house, tine college, good churches, schools, lodges and soci- 
eties. There is a good prospect for natural gas. The streets are 
large and well shaded, the home commodious and comfortable ami 
the people kind and hospitable. 

The churches of the village are as follows: The Methodist 
Episcopal was organized in 1837 by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Pennell, 
Mrs. Cox and David I 'otter, the meetings being held in houses, 
barns and groves. The first meetings were conducted by Joseph 
Mill, Robert Cheney and others. In 1840 a building was erected 
on the northeast corner Dayton and Corry Streets and dedicated 
io Rev. Mammeline. In 1845-6 )^<\g^' William Mill- and A. I'.. 
Johnson donated lots and money for a new edifice on Locust 
Street in exchange for the old building. A parsonage was built 
soon after. 

The present Presbyterian church located on Walnut street 
was organized upon the request of Judge William Mills under the 
direction of the Dayton i New School) Presbytery by Rev. Sam 
uel I). Smith. February 3, 1X55. The church building was erected 
in 1859 and dedicated March 3, 1860, The church was legally 
incorporated as the hirst Presbyterian Church January 19, 1859. 

The Christian church was organized in 1857 8 lw Elder D. T. 
Ladley and a large brick church was erected on die corner of 




CLIFTON. Three upper photos by Rubert Swaby. 

The Gorge, in summer and winter. 

Arch Bridge and Falls. 

North Street, ho^ Lng town hall (on right) and schoolhouse tower. Clay Street. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 115 

Davis and Elm Streets. The church lias enjoyed greal succi 
in the past, but during the past few years so many of the leading 
members have died or moved away, thai meetings have ceased to 
be held. The trustees a short time ago sold the church building 
in the Catholic denomination. The Catholics have been occupying 
a one-story brick church on High Street for a great many yeai , 
and their increasing numbers required a larger church. 

There are two colored churches here, the Baptisl and the 
African Methodist Episcopal. Both are well organized and have 
been in existence for nearly fifty years. 

Yellow Springs is well equipped with societies. The Inde- 
pendent Order of ( )i\t\ Fellows was organized May 21, 1853; the 
Free and Accepted Masons No. 421 in August, 1868; F. A. A. 
M. Fountain Lodge 35, in 1S7_L Grand United Order of < > < 1 < 1 
Fellows, No. 1979, in 1881 ; Grand Army of the Republic, 1881; 
Woman's Relief Corps, 1894; Pride of Solomon Lodge, No. 39, 
June 27, 1903; Junior Order of United American Mechanics, 
1901 ; Public Library Association. .March 1, 1899. All are active 
and doing good work in their respective positions. 

CLIFTO.V 

Dr. 1). E. Spahr. 

The village of Clifton derives its name from the continuous 
beautiful cliffs that constitute the rocky gorge of the Little Miami 
River. It is the oldest town in .Miami Township and contains a 
population of about 300. It was laid out in 1833 by Robert 
Watson, surveyor, and Timothy Hates and Bennett Lewis, original 
proprietors. The land was purchased for General Patterson who 
at that time owned a mill on the river at the present site of Qif 
ton. The propelling facilities were all that could he desired and 
soon a distillery, saw mill, and flour mill were in operation. Being 
located on the Cincinnati. Lebanon & Columbus stage route, the 
new town was accessible to the outside world. It was incor 
porated in 1835. Failing to gel the railroad from Xenia to 
Springfield was its Waterloo from which it has never recovered. 
At one time it bid fair to be the most prosperous business town in 



116 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

the county. The most noted pioneer character was Gen. Ben- 
jamin Whiteman, who was a hrave soldier, noted Indian fighter 
and commissioner, who built the first court house in Xenia and 
whose old homestead, the old stone house at the big spring east 
of Clifton, is still standing. 

Clifton has at this time three churches, a Presbyterian, a 
1 nited Presbyterian, and a Methodist Episcopal. The city build- 
ing is a much more pretentious building than is usually found in 
villages of this size. It is a brick structure with mayor's office 
and lockup downstairs, and J. O. U. A. M. Hall upstairs. The 
( )pera House, a first-class little theater, has a stage 42 feet wide 
and a seating capacity of 500 — a first-class opera seat for every 
man, woman and child in the village and 200 of their friends. 
The school house is a commodious brick structure of two stories, 
with four teachers. The churches are commodious and up-to- 
date. The town boasts of three general stores, two blacksmith 
shops, barber shop, restaurant, notary public, two prosperous 
physicians, a flourishing K. of |\ lodge, a J. O. U. A. M. with a 
good membership, and a Grand Army Post. The village is prop- 
erly laid out and is beautiful for situation, and is a delightful place 
to pass the simple life. The people are quiet, intelligent, and 
hospitable. Many distinguished people who have been associated 
with Clifton scenery in their youthful days are constantly return- 
ing to admire and enjoy the scenes still so dear to their hearts. 

THE ROCKY CANYON AT CLIFTON. 

To fully appreciate the beauty and grandeur of the pictur- 
esque Rocky Gorge at Clifton we should make at least two 
separate visits and explorations. One of these should be in the 
depth of winter, when the massive rocks are stripped of their 
summer covering and stand out grim, cold, and silent; when the 
door of each dark cavern stands open, when each rock, column 
and embankment stands rugged and magnificent before you and 
your voice echoes and reverberates throughout the solemn loneli- 
ness of this miniature canyon. Then again we should behold it 
as we shall today, in early June, bedecked in summer garb, array- 
ed in the drapery of green leaves and creeping vines and flowering 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 117 

plants thai add much to the loveliness but detract from the appar 
cut depth and breadth and obstruct our observation. 

Standing at the breast of the mill dam. at the edge of the 
village, we observe the winding course of the river, as it flows 
peacefully through a comparatively level, almost flat, country — 
no rugged mountains or lulls in sight. Yet the peaceful water no 
sooner drops over the dam than it falls into a deep gully which 
deepens and widens as it advances. Thus it stealthily glides 
along, skirting the south and west of the village, secure and 





is ""* , "*''' '. '■'• 




Be, 


-#r* 




STE IMBO VI RO< K. CLIFTON. 



obscured in its almost subterranean passage. As we follow its 
winding course around the village we encounter first the old saw 
mill with its water power, a relic of antiquity; then the arch 
bridge, the flouring mill, and numerous other scenes that bring 
the camera in the crowd into requisition. At the west of the 
village the old factor)- site, with the spring that issues from a 
cave under the Yellow Springs pike, is a Sllbjecl for investigation. 
Here the channel deepens and narrows and the water-, com- 



118 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

pressed from the sides and standing on edge plunge over the 
falls spreading out into a deep dark pool, shaded, cool, and im- 
pressive. Here the "silent old boatman," long since gone to his 
reward, piloted his canoe loaded with appreciative sightseers en- 
raptured with the soul-inspiring scene of the falls from below. 
Above these deep waters, where the towering rocky walls approxi- 
mate each other, is the spot where tradition locates that mythical 
story of the wonderful leap of Simon Kenton, when to save his 
scalp he made the most astonishing jump on record and so escaped 
the noble red man. 

A little further on, a depression in the side of the wall of the 
canyon is designated as the Devil's Armchair. Now we have 
reached the Cedar Garden, a beautiful grove in the widened 
chasm. Here are the twin Arch Bridges. A painting of the first 
one adorns the drop curtain in Xenia's opera house; from beneath 
the other a little stream falls over the remains of the Jug Handle 
famed in story by Captain Howard many years ago. 

Now the Steamboat Rock and Big Spring claim our admira- 
tion. Then the old paper mill location and the Blue Hole attract 
us for awhile, but the Brightest and Best, the ideal camping 
grounds and cool spring allure us into resting and refreshments, 
leaving numerous caves, Brewer's Springs and Cutlass Hole, and 
Bryan's Riverside camping grounds for the afternoon. 

In a word, no spot in Ohio has more beauty and attractiveness 
for the sightseer, or charm for the piscatorial sportsman or senti- 
mental lover, or information for the geologist, botanist, or philos- 
opher. These delightful cliff's have quietly and unpretentiously 
won their fame — a fame that is as substantial and enduring as 
their own unalterable rocks. 

NEW JASPER TOWNSHIP. 

This township was created in 1853 out of portions of Cedar- 
ville, Ross, Silver Creek. Caesar's Creek and Xenia Townships. 
New Jasper, the only town, is about 70 years old and has a 
population of something less than 100. It contains a township 
house, a Methodist Episcopal church (both of brick and built in 
1882), two stores, and a blacksmith shop. There is also a hall 




SCENES IN ROSS TOW NSHIP. 

('Inirr'li of Chrisl and Street Scene Gladstone. 

Typica I Farm Land. 

Street Scene and Church of Christ, Grape Grove, 



120 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

where the [tinior < )rder and the Daughters of America hold their 
meetings. < Mi the eastern edge of the township is the Caesar's 
Creek Baptist church. There are also in the township a tile 
factory, a sawmill, and two extensive limestone quarries which 
yield excellent building stone. (For a view of New Jasper, see 
Caesar's Creek Township.) 

R< >SS T( )WNSHIP. 

Ross Township, the northeastern corner of the county, was 
organized in 1811. It is a very fertile area devoted largely to 
the raising of corn and the feeding of stock, hnt without incor- 
porated towns. I 'art of it was originally prairie and much of its 
soil is black, Two small communities within its limits, Grape 
Grove and Gladstone, have each a school, a church of Christ, a 
grocerw and a blacksmith shop. Most of the trading is done in 
Jamestown and Cedarville. 

SILVER CREEK TOWNSHIP. 

Ibis township was organized in 1811 and included all the 
southeastern corner of the county until the formation of Jefferson 
Township in 1858. It now contains hnt one town, Jamestown. 
Mechanicsville, two miles south of Jamestown, is merely a 
crossing of the roads where formerly were a store and black- 
smith shop. 

Jamestown was laid out ami recorded in 1816 and so named 
for James Browder, an early pioneer farmer of the locality. The 
site was originally owned by Thomas Browder and .Martin Meu- 
denhall. The earliest enterprises that are recalled are the wodl- 
carding mill of James Hodges, and Merrick & McBride's still 
and grist mill. The proprietors of these enterprises together 
with most of the farmers in the locality were immigrants from 
( arolina and Virginia. The selection of the site of the town 
was a happy one; it is 16 miles from Wilmington, IS from Wash- 
ington, and 12 from Xenia. This isolation, even with the travel- 
ing facilities of today, serves to mitigate the competition of the 
larger towns. It is to the large farming area whose trade it thus 
possesses that the town owes its steady prosperity and growth. 




.1 \MI>'lo\\N. 

Main Street, looking west. 

Ceroeterj Entrance 

Church Street, looking south. 

'I'll,- ( >|.l Swimming Eole, 



Three upper pi 



122 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

The region about Jamestown is a broad, level plain, extending for 
miles in every direction. The soil is a deep, rich, black loam that 
brings phenomenal prices. 

There have been no spasmodic booms with their inevitable 
subsequent depression at Jamestown. The several attempts to- 
wards the commercialization of the oil and gas of which the 
region gives indications have been too tentative to involve much 
loss. 

In the spring of 1884 a cyclone destroyed nearly a third of 
the town, but the fact that there are no evidences of the disaster 
today exemplifies the industry and prosperity of the citizens. 
While there are no evidences of Jamestown's calamity, the abund- 
ance and quality of the farm produce that comes to its markets 
is still bearing record of Jamestown's greatest triumph, namely, 
the Jamestown Fair, which was started in 1860 and soon attained 
proportions second only to those of the ( )hio State Fair. It was 
discontinued several years ago. 

Today Jamestown's population is about 1500 (official, in 
1 ( >()0, 1205). Its industrial life is represented by two grain ele- 
vators, one flouring mill, one lumber yard, one cement block fac- 
tory, one tile mill, one carriage factor}-, two banks, two news- 
papers, two hotels, three restaurants, three livery barns, two 
greenhouses, forty stores and shops of various kinds, and a com- 
mercial club. The town is situated on the Wellston division of 
the C. IT. & D. Railroad. 

Jamestown's social organizations are: Masons, I. O. O. F., 
( >. E. S., ( i. U. O. of ( ). F, Junior ( )rder, K. of P., M. W. of A., 
and the Ladies' Advance Club. There are nine churches and an 
opera house in Jamestown. The denominations represented are: 
Baptist ( 2), M. E. and A. M. E., U. P., Church of Christ, Friends, 
Roman Catholic, and Christian. 

The first characteristics that impress a visitor in the town 
are its beautiful deep vcrandacd homes and the city-like appear- 
ance of its business section. It is Jamestown's unique good 
fortune to possess the tranquility of the village without its 
lethargy, and the industry of a city without its frenzy. 

F. McD. T. 




.Main Street Public Scboi 
Presbyterian < Jhurch. 



VMKSTOW V 
( (pera House. 



r M 

Methodist ' Ihurcb. 



124- GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

SPRING Y A I .LEY TOWN SHIP. 

This township was organized in 1856 from Sugar Creek, 
Caesar's Creek, and Xenia Townships. It is fertile, containing 
much bottom land, and is second only to Sugar Creek in tobacco 
production. 

Spring Valley, its chief town, is situated on a broad, level 
plain surrounded by a labyrinth of hills. The settlement, orig- 
inally called Transylvania and consisting only of several houses, 
a general store, and the tavern and stage station of Jeffrey Tru- 
man, was on the west bank of the river, hut with the construction 
of the Panhandle Railroad in 1X45 the population shifted to its 
present center under the eastern range of hills. 

Among the first industries were the pork packing and ship- 
ping company of Byrd & Walton, Barrett's woolen mill, Dougher- 
ty's linseed oil mill, and the large cooper shop of Giles Kinney. 
At present Spring Valley has a population of 700 (official, in 1 ( X30, 
r>22). It has a flouring mill, two saw mills, a canning factor)-, a 
concrete block factory, three blacksmith shops, a national bank 
(surplus $60,000), a hotel, two restaurants, a poultry shipping 
house, two barber shops, and seven stores. Spring Valley's 
springs are its proudest possession. There are said to he fourteen 
different kinds of water within a radius of two miles. From one 
spring gushes a stream of water seven inches in diameter. "Mag- 
netic" water flows from a pipe that was drilled for oil, while 
within ten inches of it strong medicinal water with no magnetic 
quality is ejected intermittently by the force of its own gas. This 
water comes from 1450 feet below the surface; it has about the 
same density as sea water and its chief constituents are common 
salt and Epsom salts. 

'There are three churches in Spring Valley: the Methodist 
Episcopal (which in 1 ( '()7 erected a new $8,000 church of con- 
crete blocks), the Methodist Protestant, and the Friends'. A 
new school and high school building was also built of concrete 
blocks in \ l H)7. 

Claysville, or Roxanna, as it is now called, is a shipping 
point on the I'. C. C. & St. L. Railroad. It is about two miles 
below Spring Valley, and the population is about 30. 




>]. K. Church. 



SPRING \ iiLLEY. 
Main Street. Wabnil Street, i Phol i b> Rosa E. ■!■ In 

View from tl e Mouud. 



Hm; OKIiENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

New Burlington, ( > miles south of Xenia, has its northern 
section in Spring Valley Township, but the larger part of it lies 
in Clinton County. F. McD. T. 

SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. 
lames R. Hale, Assistant State Librarian. 

The first of the "Big Four" townships to he carved, as it 
were, in 1802, from the then unplatted wild known ever after as 
Greene County, ( )hio, was Sugar Creek. In 1856 what is now 
Spring Valley Township was taken from Sugar Creek, previous 
to which time the citizens of Spring Valley Township went to 
Bellbrook to vote at general elections which attracted large 
crowds. 

The Little Miami River enters the township at the northeast 
and flows southward more than half the extent of the township, 
to where it turns eastward and enters Spring Valley. Little 
Sugar Creek, a small stream, extends from the extreme northwest 
toward the center of the township where, at a point just south 
of Bellbrook, it joins Big Sugar Creek which flows from the west, 
and at this juncture the uniting streams become Sugar Creek 
proper which, flowing southeast, empties into the Little Miami. 
From this small stream, or from the abundance of sugar timber 
in this locality, the township takes its name. The industries of 
the township belong mostly to agriculture, and a very consider- 
able acreage is given to tobacco, producing superior grades 
commanding good prices. Though there have been several flour- 
ing mills along the river, but one yet remains of the now almost 
vanished pioneer industry. Building stone of considerable quan- 
tity and quality has been quarried in the northern part of the 
township. 

The first settlers of the township came up from Cincinnati, 
"the gateway of the northwest," and very early settlements were 
made al Bellbrook and Clio. The oldest house now standing 
in the township, or in Greene County, is near Clio, near the site 
id' the temporary hut first built by the Wilson brothers in 1796, 
and was erected by these brothers for their father in 1800. On 
the farm jusl north of Clio was located the first mill for grinding 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 127 

corn. Ii was worked by hand by the neighbors as they in turn 
would grind their own corn from which "mush" was made. Wild 
animals abounded in this locality, upon which the settlers depended 
for meat, and between Clio and Centreville was located what was 
called "a bear wallow." a boggy place where the bears went to 
roll themselves in the oozy mud as our modern swine are wont to 
do, and where at one time, as it is related, one man killed two 
hears and < me deer. 

At Bellbrook the settlement was made at a very early period. 
The father of Dr. James Clancy, from Kentucky, settled here in 
1786-7, purchased the land that became the east side of the village, 
and built a log cabin on the site of the present Bellbrook Inn. 
where he "kept tavern" for a number of years, building another 
tavern on the same site in 1797 which was a large two- story 
frame. In this building was also kept the first store and it is 
related that Joseph C. Vance (who, after laying out Xenia went 
to Champaign County and whose son Joseph was elected governor 
of Ohio in 1836) also kept tavern in this building about 17' '7. 
EJellbrook is the only incorporated municipality in the township; 
it was laid out in 1816 but was not incorporated until 1832. The 
progenitors of the village were, Stephen Bell, after whom it \v;h 
named (and who afterward became the mayor of Springfield), 
Dr. James Clancy, and Henry Opdyke, they being owners of tin' 
land on which the coming metropolis was to stand. In 1850 it 
flourished with a population of 502; in 1870 it was 369; in 1880 
it reached 425, while in 1900 it was 352. the population of the 
township for 1900 being 1368. 

The first schoolhouse stood nearly opposite the present vil 
lage school building. It was a rude structure of native logs. 
Janes Rain was the popular teacher of the period; he was also a 
"brewer of beer" and his malt house stood in the hollow near the 
schoolhouse, so that he could teach the school and brew the beer 
at the same time. The malt house was a rude structure, also 
frequently given to conflagrations, on which occasions the teacher 
would sound the alarm and. quickly ordering the school dismissed, 
would lead the big hoys and big girls of die school, as an impro- 
vised tire brigade, to the rescue. Many other buildings lor school 




BELLBROOK. 

1 Government Bui Id in 



Bath Bouse. 
Street Scene. High School. 



Township House. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 129 

purposes were erected from time to time, until in 1854 when the 
brick building of three rooms, in the north part of the village, was 

erected. This was quite a large and popular school for man) 
years. Many of the former graduates in learning were fledged 
from what was known as "The Academy," which was a large 
frame building and stood near the present Presbyterian church 
hut was destroyed by fire in 1850. At present the village has 
a special district school and the township high school located 
within the town. 

The various religious denominations have always been well 
represented in Sugar Creek. The first church building was 
erected by the Baptists (Predestinarian) at Middle Run in the 
extreme part of the township in 1799, where services are yet 
held. The first church building in the vicinity of Bellbrook was 
erected by the Associate Presbyterians at the northwest corner 
of the Pioneer-Associate graveyard, in 1X11. The M. E. and 
M. P. denominations have flourished in the village from the be- 
ginning; in 1842 the latter erected the present building and in 
1844 the former's present house of worship was erected. The 
Presbyterian church was organized about 1828 and purchased 
from the I'niversalists its first building, which was known as the 
bell church because it had a bell in its belfry, and was removed 
for the present building. The U. P. church erected in 1859 the 
large frame building which was destroyed by fire when known as 
the .Magnetic Springs Hotel, the church organization having 
removed from the township. The Christian church is located 
southeast of Bellbrook and that of the Disciples (Salem) north 
of Clio. These religious organizations had their burial grounds 
near the church buildings. In 1850 the Bellbrook Cemetery 
Association was formed, purchasing mortuary grounds about a 
half mile north of the village and from year to year these grounds 
have been well kepi and beautified. 

Pork packing on an extensive scale, making Bellbrook the 
Porkopolis and business center of a widely extended territory, 
began here about 1835, when the brick porkhouse in the village 
was built. At this house were received, from the slaughter house 
west of town, about 250 hogs for each working day of 12 hours. 



130 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

They were hauled in long processions of farmers' wagons piled 
high with the clean, while, stark bodies, noses ornamented with 
blood-red icicles, and the round red wound in the while foreheads 
showing where the unerring blow with the hammer had struck 
them down; these, with the noisy drivers, tilled the street all day 
long and often far into the night. Then came the weighing on 
the sprangled arms of the beam scales just within the door of the 
porkhouse; the announcement of the weight in stentorian tones, 
like the town crier at an auction ; then the busy, noisy scene within, 
as the hogs were cut into hams, shoulders, sides, etc., by the huge 
living cleavers — all made quite a scene of commercial commotion 
in the < >ld t< >wn. 

Two popular incidents have most conspired to make Hell 
brook famous, at least as famous as she is, the achievement of 
"Sleepy Tom, the Pacing Wonder," in 187'', and the discovery of 
die Magnetic Springs in 18,82. This remarkable horse was a 
Bellbrook village "scrub" and led a vagabond's life as a colt, and 
after some efforts at putting him in training because of his natu- 
ral pacing gait, he lost his eyesight and was known as "Blind 
Tom," and as this gave him a sleepy appearance he received the 
racing name of "Sleepy Tom." At Chicago in 1879, when he 
was about twelve years old, he went in the great pacing race and 
took- third, fourth, and fifth mile heats in 2:16j/>, 2:16, and 
2:12' 4 for a purse of $15,000. In the last heat he recorded the 
best time known in the world in any gait, and immediately Tom's 
name became a household word and his fame spread throughout 
the civilized world, but he lived to neglected age, and perished 
miserably in a burning stable "out west." 

The Magnetic Springs were discovered in 1882 by the plas- 
terer who was finishing the basement of the old United Presby- 
terian church building, on North Main Street, for a dwelling. It 
was noticed that the trowel used in the work appeared to become 
magnetized after being immersed for a time in the water of the 
old spring used as a well under the floor of the basement. The 
water was taken to a chemist and a partial analysis was procured 
at the cost o| five dollars. The partial analysis was quite formid- 
able in technical names lor the various ingredients and appeared 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 131 

especially so when placed upon large advertising posters by a 
local arii^t and amateur promoter and placed in conspicuous 
places about the village. Many citizens began at once to take the 
liquid prescription for their many ailments, most always reporting 
beneficial results, which were gathered as testimonials and. with 
the account of the great discovery (heralded as the "lost waters" 
for which Ponce de Leon searched in vain), were sent to the 
newspapers far and wide. This free advertising brought a con- 
tinuous stream of visitors to the village from near and far. bring 
ing all sorts of vessels with which to carry away the healing 
waters. On one Sunday, during the first throes of the excitement 
occasioned by the great discovery, the streets of the village were 
completely filled with vehicles, as never before, the crowd being 
estimated, for this one day, at five thousand or more. The old 
church building was used for some time as hotel and bathhouse 
but was destroyed by fire. The Bellbrook run was erected across 
the way. south of the original spring but near what was claimed 
as another spring "just as good" as the original. The Inn was 
also destroyed by tire recently, leaving the bathhouse which covers 
the old spring as the only building to mark the spot where the 
great Magnetic once flourished; but ''crushed to earth" it may 
"rise again." With the magnetic water came the newspaper called 
The Magnet, which was followed by The Moon, which flourished, 
more or less, for some years but finally yielded to the logic of the 
situation and passed into peaceful oblivion. 

The taverns of the village were points about which many of 
the pioneer incidents cluster. The first was the Clancy tavern as 
already mentioned; another was called "The Mansion I louse," 
with a very high sign post in front with the name in large letters 
on it, part of which is now the last house 011 South Main Street, 
west side; then "The Eagle Exchange" with its sign post, on the 
northwest corner of the public square; and the "< ireen l'a\ Tree," 
now the brick building on the west side of North Main Street. 
These were, in their time, the centers for public meetings, elec- 
tions, conventions and general conviviality, and on such occasions 
the large barns and yards would be filled with champing horses 
with now and then a stopover stagecoach anion-' the pio 



132 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



vehicles. For those were stagecoaching days and Bellbrook was 
on the stage line from Dayton to the Little Miami station at 
Spring Valley. It was certainly a moving spectacle to see the 
prancing horses, six of them to the coach, and of the best stock, 
in tine harness, and each horse with a full set of bells; then to 
hear the driver wind his bugle, see the passengers clambering to 
their seats, perhaps a cheer would go up for some favorite candi- 
date, with a parting blast from the horn as the horses would dash 




THE OLD TAVERN "AS IT UST TO BE.'' 



Drawn by Kenneth Hale. 



away or. at times, the bugler would continue in strains of beauti- 
ful numbers, sending the echoes among the hills and vales, as the 
coach moved on its rumbling way down the valley. The old 
tavern stand on the corner, before mentioned, has yet upon the 
roof, up alongside the capacious chimney, a bell hanging in its 
pagoda-like house, where it has hung for more than two-thirds of 
a century. The old bell has a peculiar roundelay when rung as 
it tised to ring, and it was long ago decided that the old bell was 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. L33 

trying to say: "Pig-tail clone!", repeating it three times to each 
measure. So that this old bell is tenderly associated with the 
many pleasing reminiscences in the memory of those who lived 
in the old town in the other days, and its faun- is embalmed in 
prose and poetry by the local historians and bards, to which 
James Whitcomb Riley in his "Ponchus Pilut" has added: 

" Yes, an' out in our hack yard 
He he'ps 'I.indy rendur lard; 
An', wite iu the fire there, he 
Roast' a pig-tail wunst for me — 
An ist nen th' old tavurn-bell 
Rung, down town, an' lie says 'Well 
Hear dat! Lan' o' Canaan, son, 
Ain't dat bell say " Pig-tail done ! 

I 'ig-tail done ! 

Go tell Son ! — 

Tell dat 

Chile dat 

Pig-tail done ! 

Bellbrook and Sugar Creek responded to the first roll of the 
drum, or the first blast of the bugle, that called to arms in defense 
of the old flag and the Union in the Civil War. It was early in 
that trying time (November, 1861) when the first soldier son 
answered his last roll call, and the little village seeming to nestle 
SO peacefully among the Miami hills was called to attend its first 
war funeral. The following years, all during the mighty flood 
tide of the great struggle, brought untold sorrow to Sugar Creek, 
a loyal township of a banner-winning county, sending, according 
to the published roster. 205 soldiers to the front. 

The wandering sons of Bellbrook and Sugar Creek do not 
forget the old home, but many of them take delighl in going back- 
to the old place to revisit the old landmark-, recall the scenes of 
the long-past at the old place. In Dayton there has been for a 
number of year- a society of the former residents of the Bell- 

In answer to an inquiry as to whether the Eoosier poet's idea in tlii- poem was 
taken from the old tavern bell in Bellbrook, Mr. Hair has jusl received tin- Following: 

"No; but the same kind of a countrj town, tavern, and bell,— for it always said 
1 Pig-tail done ', God bless it. Heartiij but hastily yours, 

James Whitcomb Rilev. 

A number of years ago some verses bj Mr. Bale on the old i»'ll appeared in the 
Xenia Gazette, in which he exploited '" Pig-tail done" for what he beheves to be the firs! 
time iu print. That two differenl bells should say "Pig-tail dour is not utterly im- 
probable .and the Bellbrook bell has no need to yield priority, for, as Mr. Hair says, 'it 

was saying it seventy or more years ago." Ki>- 



134 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

brook locality known as the Gem City Bellbrook Club, organized 
for the purpose of keeping green the memory of the old home. 
The club for several years was championed by the venerable 
Simon Sparks, who has passed to his final home leaving a ven- 
erated memory. This society held a number of annual meetings 
at the old home place and the spirit of these meetings went abroad 
to former residents living farther away, and in 1905. on Labor 
Day, the first general home-coming for all former residents of 
the locality was held, and it was a surprising success, being largely 
attended by representatives from a number of states, widely 
separated, hut coming together once more at the old home, for 
the first time in many years, in a happy, handshaking time. Three 
annual meetings have been held, all eminently successful and 
growing in interest each year, with ever increasing attendance 
of loyal sons and daughters of old Sugar Creek. 

XENIA TOWNSHIP. 

Xenia Township was organized in 1805 from portions of 
Beaver Creek, Caesar's Creek and Sugar Creek Townships. It 
includes a larger area than any other township in the county and 
is one of the most famous for its fancy stock. Being the town- 
ship of the county seat, it contains a number of county institu- 
tions, such as the courthouse, jail, etc., mentioned in the historical 
sketch. Situated about two miles west of Xenia are the County 
Infirmary and the Children's Home. The former comprises a 
three-story brick building, erected about forty years ago, set in 
a farm of 105 acres and supplied with water from the city water 
works. There are usually about seventy inmates in the Infirmary, 
while in the Home, an older building across the road, about thirty 
children are cared for. In addition to the city of Xenia, the 
township contains the villages of ( )ldtown, (iocs and Wilberforce. 

Oldtown, three miles north of Xenia, has a celebrated his- 
tory which is related in the article on "The Original People of the 
County," Part II. At present it is the home of about 50 people 
and has a M. E. church, a school house, a flour mill, a store, and 
the inevitable blacksmith shop. It is no longer a station on the 
railroad. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS, L35 

Goes owes its importance chiefly to the Miami Powder I om 
pane which has its plant there, employing about sixty men. The 
town is a flag station on the Springfield and Xenia railroad and 
has a school house, store, and blacksmith shop. The waters of 
a large spring above the town supply its 200 inhabitants with pure 
water at little cost. 

WlLBERFORCE was formerly a health resort called Taw aw a 
Springs, but since 1856 it has been the seal of Wilberforce Uni- 
versity, which is described in a separate article. Wilberforce has 
a population of 300. exclusive of the University student-, and 
contains some attractive residences. There arc three restaurants 
and a store, and a Hag station on the I'. C. C. & St. I.. Railroad 
three quarters of a mile away. 

XENIA. 

"Hoke" Smith, Editor of the Xenia Republican. 

When, a few years ago. a citizen of Xenia went to South 
America on a business mission, he was not long at his hotel until 
sought out by another who had formerly lived beneath the Star- 
and Stripes and who wanted to learn the news from home, lie 
showed the Xenian a little old-fashioned railroad locomotive 
which bore the name 'Xenia" in faded letters. It had once been 
in use on the old C. II. & D. Railroad when that line was a narrow 
gauge, and for years had snorted and puffed its way through 
Xenia. Then when its day of usefulness had ended here it had 
been bought, together with several other of the old engines, 
by a sharp contractor and had been shipped to Columbia, S. A., 
where it is still in service. Go where you will in the world, there 
is always some evidence at hand that Xenia is on the map. The 
products of our factories go all over the world and Xenians them- 
selves are everywhere. l'>e it a great disaster or a great cele 
bration, you will always find some Xenian in it. 

The St. Louis balloonists who sailed above Xenia some time 
ago, remembered the city because of its hundreds of shade trees. 
Many of the fine old tree- have given way before ruthless hands 
for the building of cement sidewalks and street paving, but the 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. L37 

people have jealously guarded them wherever possible and have 
kept the grateful shade on nearly all the thoroughfares outside 

the business district. 

I f you have never seen Xenia from a height it will pay you to 
climb to the top of the Court House tower some <lav. It is like 
looking at the old town through new eyes. A fine old place it 
is, with its miles oi shade trees stretching in all directions, its 
homes surrounded by green lawns, its stretches of cement walk 
glistening white under the rays of the sun. Smoke stacks send 
up their volume of smoke, proving at times a good deal of ;i 
nuisance to the residents, hut at leasl giving evidence of our com 
mercial activity; and everywhere there is the evidence of cleanli 
uess, prosperity, and contentment. 

And if it be a bright day and the harvests about to ripen you 
will want to spend some time up there getting acquainted with 
the surrounding country ami picking out familiar objects. Far 
away may be seen dimly the spires of historic Antioch. "^ on are 
impressed anew with the fact that there i^ no more beautiful spot 
than the fertile Miami valley. No wonder that it has been called 
a modern Arcadia; the green fields sweep away in long stretches, 
broken here and there by the streams along which are the syca 
mores and willows; comfortable farm houses and big barns tilled 
to bursting attest the generosity of Mother Earth in yielding up 
her choicest fruits for us. From the horn of plenty have been 
scattered the good things of earth all over this section. The fancy 
breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine have brought fame to 
the county of Greene. No other farmers in the United States 
have taken so many prizes for tine stock. In the midst of such 
surroundings no wonder Xenia has grown and prospered. 

We have our peculiarities, to be sure. We have a -team 
railway which runs along the principal street of the city, right by 
the Court Mouse. Long freight trains passing along the principal 
thoroughfare look queer to strangers and in lime past efforts have 
been made to get the railroad off the street bul to no purpose and, 
after all. we rather like it, because we are accustomed to it. 

We are like London. England, in one respect some of our 
streets are very narrow. The man who laid out Xenia was 



138 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

possessed of a streak of economy which has given us cramped 
quarters in some sections. 

POPULATION. 

The last census, taken in 1900, gave Xenia a population of 
8,696. Since that time the city has enjoyed phenomenal growth 
and these figures fall far short of the population at the present 
time; nor do they embrace the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' 
* )rphans' I tome which lies at our doors and which is the home of 
about a thousand persons. We have passed the ten thousand 
mark and are still growing. 

The city is divided into four wards, each of which consists 
of two precincts. The present First Ward is the westernmost, 
the Second next, then the Third, and the Fourth east of all. the 
main dividing lines being West, Detroit, and Leech Streets. It 
is well governed; the laws strictly enforced. The police force 
consists of a chief and seven patrolmen. 

RECENT I IMPROVEMENTS. 

Within the past ten years Xenia has made long strides. It 
has witnessed the erection of a splendid new court house, the 
corner stone of which was laid in 1901. The old court house 
had seiwed its purpose since 18-16 and had been the scene of many 
memorable events and there were a great many of the '"old timers" 
who gazed at it with fond eyes as its walls disappeared. Upon 
its site has appeared a structure that has proven a model in con- 
venience and beauty of architecture. A leading publication 
recently gave pictures of a few of the model court houses in the 
1 nited States and the Greene County structure was selected as 
one of these. It is about the only instance in the country where 
a court house was built within the appropriation. The commis- 
sioners were authorized to sell -I per cent bonds to the amount of 
$200,000 hut only $184,000 worth were required to erect and 
furnish the structure. 

i he building of the court house awoke civic pride in Xenia. 
J he building was surrounded on all sides by streets which in the 




l J liotos l>y Douning. 

\i;nia. 

Dfi roit St reel, looking north/ Market Street, looking east. 

(City Hall on the left.) 

Main Street, looking e 



140 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

spring became well nigh impassable. Tn the course of time came 
the street paving. Main, Detroit, and Market Streets were paved 
with brick and Second Street with asphalt, making in all about 
five miles of paved streets. Prior to this improvement there had 
been built a complete sewerage system, adding greatly to the city's 
healthfulness. Then came the construction of miles upon miles 
of cement walks. The streets are well lighted. 

These public utilities require the expenditure of a vast sum 
of money each year. Last year it cost the people of Xenia, 
including interest, the sum of $118,644.21 to make the wheels of 
the city government turn smoothly. And this sum did not include 
the special assessment for paving, sewerage, etc. We have been 
pouring money into the public improvements. Our paved streets 
cost us the sum of $197,600 and the sanitary sewerage system 
$80,000. This does not include several thousand dollars to take 
care of the storm water. 

Yet Xenia is a rich city and can well afford to make these 
improvements and take care of its citizens in public utilities. Last 
year there was on the tax duplicate personal property which 
amounted to $1,587,863 and real estate the value of which was 
$2,543,250, a total valuation of $4,130,113. 

Till-: CARNEGIE LIBRARY. 

A building in which all may take a great pride is the fine 
Carnegie library located on Last Church Street, built by the gen- 
erosity of Andrew Carnegie who gave $20,000 for the building 
property and afterward contributed $1,350 for the furnishings. 
Last year there were circulated thirty thousand volumes for home 
use. Away from the noise of the city and set in a green sward 
it affords a restful place where all may have access to the best of 
literature. 

Another public building which may prove to be a reality 
before long j s a Government building for which Congress has 
made an appropriation of $10,000 for a site, but at this writing 
the location has not yet been decided. It would be the home of 
the Xenia post office and oilier Government offices of the Sixth 
Congressional District, of which Xenia is the largest city. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 1 11 
THE POST OF! [i i 

The Xenia posl office is now occupying a room in the Y. M. 
C. A. building on the southeast corner of Greene and Markel 
Streets. The post office force consists of the postma istanl 

postmaster, five clerks, six city carriers, ten rural carriers, one 
mail messenger and one special delivery messenger. The yearlv 
pay mil for these employees amounts to $23,840. Twenty-five 
mails arc received ami a like number dispatched each daw Postal 
receipts for the year ended .March 31, 1908, were $18,827.62. 
Mone\ orders written the year ended 1907 amounted to $62,179.62. 
Money orders paid the same year amounted to $50,833.71. 

FIRE DEPARTMENT AND WATKK WORKS. 

Xenia lias long been noted for its splendid lire protection. 
There are two fire stations, one centrally located on Whiteman 
Street, the other at Cincinnati Avenue and Second Street. There 
are five regular firemen and eight jape men who may he depended 
upon at a moment's notice to respond to calls. 

Speaking of the tire department brings us to the subjeel of 
the magnificent water system possessed by Xenia. It was built 
in 1887 and there are two stations. The one on the Springfield 
pike derives its supply of water from springs and the one buill 
later on the Cincinnati pike gets a supply of clearesl crystal water 
from wells. The big engines with their steady "cling" send this 
water in abundant supply to the mammoth standpipe which is 
located upon high ground and affords at all times a pressure such 
as few systems possess. ( )n an average five hundred thousand 
gallons of water each day are distributed to the inhabitants of 
Xenia. The Company is owned and under the supervision ol 
local capitalists and has recently secured a renewal of its franchise 
for ten years. Mr. George F. Cooper, who is the efficient super- 
intendent, had charge of the construction of the plant and knows 
every detail connected with this important feature of the city's 
well being. 

(;.\S AND mm i Ricm . 
Two electric companies suppl) Xenia with light and power. 



142 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

Natural gas has found its way to our doors and lias proven a 
great boon to the citizens of Xenia in its cheapness (25 cents per 
thousand ) and cleanliness both as a fuel and light. No artificial 
gas is now manufactured in the city. At this time there are over 
1,300 consumers of natural gas. It was introduced only a couple 
of years ago but Xenia people were quick to appreciate its advant- 
ages. Our supply of gas, which has always proven adequate, 
comes from the Mt. Vernon, ( ).. fields. 

COMMUNICATIONS. 

Xenia depends to a very large extent upon the agricultural 
resources for its support and business but a number of splendid 
industries have grown up. The shipping facilities have proven at 
all times adequate to tempt the manufacturer. Our situation 
upon the great I 'an Handle system of railways, brings us in close 
touch with the leading cities of the country. Electric lines make 
it but a step to Springfield and Dayton. By our steam lines New 
York City is only fifteen hours away, Chicago eight hours and St. 
Louis nine. The Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway taps 
a rich coal mining country and hauls the black diamonds our way 
in vast quantities. 

Two telephone systems afford Xenians quick and easy com- 
munication. Each one of the companies occupying the field has 
approximately a thousand subscribers in Xenia while lines from 
both systems radiate to all parts of the county and to the smaller 
towns, proving a wonderful aid in the transaction of business. 
The great majority of Greene County farmers may today be 
reached within a few moments by the aid of the telephone. 

THE TWINE A XI) CORDAGE INDUSTRY. 

Xenia's principal industry and that in which more money by 
far is invested than in any other single enterprise is the making of 
twine and cordage. The city is known throughout the United 
States as a center for the twine industry and it is a matter of 
pride that the great grain-growing districts of the West and 
South call upon Xenia to a large extent for the twine which binds 
the grain which feeds a large portion of the world. 



A DESCRIPTION ()F THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS, l I.", 

The Hooven & Allison Company is Xenia's largesl concern. 
It employs 550 persons, making rope of all description and com 
mercial and binder twines and sending its products to all parts of 
the United States and Canada. The remotest countries of die 
earth yield raw products to the mills: the jute comes from China 
and Japan; Manila hemp from the Philippines; sisal from Yuca- 
tan, Mexico; also hem]) from Russia and Italv and American 
hemp from Kentucky. There arc now three large mills in opera 
tion and in the early part of June, 1908, there was blown for the 
first time to summon the employees together the whistle of one 
of the largest mills of the West. It is located on Cincinnati 
\\eimc and contains floor space to the extent of 120,000 square 
feet. In addition to the regular channels of trade the compam 
maintains branch houses at Kansas City, Omaha, Minneapolis, 
and Seattle. The Hooven i\- Allison Company is one of the 
pioneers in the making of twine in this country, which has grown 
year by year from a very Feeble and primitive method of produc 
ing twine, until the present extensive industry has been achieved. 
A history of the twine-making industry in Xenia would prove 
interesting hut it is not within the province of this article. 

The I\. A. Kelly Cordage Company is another of Xenia's 
splendid industries along the same line, ft employs a force of 
100 men. Binder twine is made but the chief product is manila 
rope. Its rope is of a high grade quality, the United States m,,\ 
eminent using it in its work. Rope as large as three and a half 
inches in diameter is turned out from the factory, this vj/e being 
in great demand for the drilling of gas wells. Operated under 
the same management is the Kelly Machine Shops where skilled 
labor is employed at good wages. Here is made what is known 
as a "shaper," a machine tool, which is shipped to all parts of the 
world and for which there is a steady and growing demand. 

OTHER I NDUSTRIES. 

The Xenia Shoe Factory has spread the fame of Xenia in a 
manufacturing way. The factory has been established only aboul 
eighteen years and from a humble beginning has grown to a plant 
which, when running to its full capacity, employ- 300 hands ami 



144 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

turns out 1500 pairs of shoes each daw [ts traveling salesmen 
cover a large section of the country and its products are shipped 
to all parts of the United States. It has a paid-up capital stock 
of $100,000. 

The Xenia Fuse Factor}', an adjunct to the Aetna Powder 
Company, is another notable industry. There are six substantial 
brick buildings devoted to this plant, located on Home Avenue. 
It would be strange that a great work like the construction of the 
Panama canal were in progress and Xenia products not in some 
way find their lodgement there. And thus we find the Xenia 
factory shipping to that far away point the fuses that touch off 
the enormous blasts which will pave the way for the ships of all 
nations to pass through to the Pacific without that long tiresome 
voyage around the Horn. The plant employs sixty people. The 
work is light and not considered dangerous. The fuses from the 
factory are in great demand all over the world. Australia, Ger- 
many, Japan and far away South Africa use them in their 
blasting. 

The Xenia Star Nurseries located here ship aw r ay annually a 
million trees. The nurseries occupy three farms, two on the Day- 
ton pike and one on the upper Bellbrook pike, in all comprising 
350 acres of land. The trees are shipped to all parts of the 
country. $15,000 is distributed each year for labor and in a busy 
season from one hundred to one hundred and fifty hands are 
employed. 

The Xenia Board & Paper Company employs about forty 
persons. It is a branch of an Indianapolis concern. The box 
hoard is used for the making of suit cases, paper boxes and sim- 
ilar articles and the Xenia mill has a capacity of twenty tons per 
day. Recently there has been installed much costly machinery, 
enabling the mill to produce two- and three-ply hoard and greatly 
increasing its usefulness. 

The Hollencamp plant for making artificial ice is located at 
the conier of Columbus and Third Streets. It has a capacity of 
thirty tons a clay and keeps our citizens reasonably cool. A cold 
storage departmenl is run in connection with the ice plant. 

I'lic plant of the George Dodds & Sons Company has the 




SOME OF \K\i \ s SCHOOL BI I LDINGS. 

East Main Street Bigh. ,,. , s i"- illir "'"• 

Central Bi»rh. 

McKinlej (Wesl Market Markel Street. 



146 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

distinction of being by far the most handsomely equipped retail 
establishment for monuments and cut stone work in the United 
States. The company does business in several states and as far 
west as Denver. 

The city has five solid financial institutions. Included in 
this number are two National banks, the Citizens' National and 
the Xenia National. The Commercial and Savings Bank is a 
newer institution but in excellent standing. There are two Build- 
ing and Loan Associations, the Home and the People's. The 
utmost confidence is reposed in these monied institutions. 

The Eavey Wholesale Grocery is one of Xenia's big institu- 
tions. < )ne of the most costly fires that Xenia has ever had swept 
this grocery away in the early part of 1908, costing the lives of 
two brave firemen, who were crushed by falling walls. A new 
building of reinforced concrete has been erected on a new site, 
at the corner of Third and Detroit Streets. This new building is 
a splendid addition to the business property of the city. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

The Xenia Public Schools have a reputation that extends all 
over the State. The State School Commissioner, who has the 
legal authority for the rating of high schools, has put Xenia in 
the first class. So also has the association of the leading colleges 
of this section, so that pupils who receive a diploma from the 
Xenia public schools are eligible to enter the colleges which belong 
to this association upon the diploma alone. No other tax is paid 
so cheerfully as that which supports the schools. The annual sum 
paid out for tuition alone amounts to $30,000 annually; for 
janitor service is paid about $4,000 and a like sum for contingent 
expenses. The Board of Education is composed of seven mem- 
bers and there are about fifty teachers. The schools occupy six 
buildings, there being two high schools, the Central and the East 
Alain Street, the latter being set apart for the accommodation of 
colored youth. Last year the enumeration showed the number of 
children of school age to be 2510; the enrollment is about 1665. 
Mention of the Xenia public schools would not be complete with- 
out a word as to its superintendent, Prof. E. B. Cox. He has 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 1 17 

held thai position for more than a quarter of century, being 
elected in 1881 and prior to that time having served as assistanl 

principal of the high school. I lc is still guiding the public scl 1 

with his old-time energy, foresight, and wisdom. 

CHURCHES. 

The many splendid churches of the city arc a tremendous 
factor in the life of the people. An open-hearted generosit) 
marks the benevolences of the various churches and thousands ol 
dollars arc given annually to the cause of missions and for home 

work. 

( me hundred years ago this autumn a minister of the A. R. 
church preached in Xenia and two years later. 1810, a congrega 
tion was organized. That congregation became the First I nited 
Presbyterian church just 50 years ago, when the Associate Re- 
formed united with the Associate church and formed the I 'nited 
Presbyterian denomination. In 98 years the congregation has 
bad nine pastors: John Steele. J. P. Bonner, R. D. Harper, W. G. 
Moorehead, T. II. Ilanna. J. II. Wright, W. B. Barr, R. G. Ram 
say and S. E. Martin. The present membership is more than 300. 
Plans have been drawn for a new bouse of worship.. An envi- 
able record has been made by the congregation in many lino o! 
Christian work. 

One of the beautiful church homes of the city is the Second 
United Presbyterian church at the corner of Market and Wesl 
Streets. It was erected at a cost of $28,000 and has only been 
occupied about a year. The church is of picturesque appearance, 
of the English timbered style of architecture. It was constructed 
of native limestone. Last year this church gave for benevolences 
the splendid sum of $5,872.59. It has a membership of 365. 

Christ Church Episcopal was established in Xenia 52 year- 
ago. It was a small congregation but a zealous devotion to duty 
marked those who held it- standard aloft. Last year the church 
took on new life. A new church edifice ha- jusl been completed 
on East Church street at a cost of $8,000. There are now 85 
municants. the number bavin- double within the past year. Un- 
church while small is beautiful in it- arrangements, being of the 




- Preshytef/an 



XENIA CHUECHES. 



I'liotos by Canby. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND IIS TOWNSHIPS 1 t9 

early English Gothic style of architecture. The plans for ii were 
drawn by the rector, Rev. II. J. Simpson. 

The First Methodist Episcopal Church is another congi 
tion which is worshiping in a comparatively new church. This 
congregation consists of over 800 members. Ten years ago the 
church was remodeled and converted into a beautiful structure. 
( )n Home-Coming Sunday will be celebrated the centennial anni 
versary of its founding in Xenia. 

The Reformed Church of Xenia is looking forward to tin 
Home-Coming with pleasurable anticipations. The pastors who 
have presided over this congregation for almost sixty years arc 
all living at this writing. The venerable P. C. Prugh was is 
pastor for 2? years and is still in the harness. I le was succeeded 
by Rev. S. B. Yockey who occupied the pulpit for an almost equal 
length, 23 years and who is still a resident of Xenia. After him 
for shorter periods have been Rev. M. L. Fox, Rev. Henry 
Gekeler and the present pastor Rev. Ernest Evans. It is hoped 
that all the old pastors may he present and occupy the pulpit to- 
gether at Home-Coming time, representing a period of church 
history as before stated of almost sixty years. The church ha- a 
membership of 250 and the congregation has recently purchased 
the lot at the corner of Detroit and Church Streets where a church 
and parsonage will he erected at a cost of $30,000, leaving die old 
church home at the corner of Detroit and Market Streets. 

Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church is an offshool from the 
First M. E. Church. It was organized about forty years ago, the 
church building being located on East .Main Street and being 
pleasant and commodious. It has a membership of aboul 350 and 
last year gave for benevolences approximately $1,00 I. 

The First Presbyterian Church was organized aboul 1826. 
It has a membership of about 340. The house of worship is 
located on West Market Street. It is one of the Strong COllgrega 
tions of the city, contributing liberally to benevolences and its 
membership exerting a greal influence upon the community. 

The Lutheran Church, on West Main Street, was organized 
in 1852 and has a membership of about 70. While not -,, large 
as some others it docs earnest, active work. 




XENIA CHURCHES. 



Upper photos by Downing. 
Lower photo by W. P. McKay. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 151 

The First Baptist Church of Xenia is situated at the corner 
of Market and Whiteman Streets. It was organized Nov. _'. 
1X44, the first pastor being Rev. T. P. I hilds. This church is 
especially noted for having sent out many young men and women 




CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



who have become leaders in Christian work and in the missionary 
field. The membership is about 170. 

On May 31, 1908, was dedicated the new house of worship 
for the Society of Friends. It is located on Spring Mill. After 
four years of work prior to thai time in Xenia the Friends felt 



152 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

that they had a work to perform and earnestly set to work to 
accomplish it. The membership numbers 115. 

On Orient Hill there is a neat brick church erected by a 
recently organized congregation of the Disciples of Christ, which 
has about 40 members. 

Those of the Catholic faith worship at St. Brigid's Church. 
It has a membership of about 275 families, and is now probably 
larger in numbers than at any time in its history. The congrega- 
tion was founded in 1849 and for a time the few families who 
gathered together for worship were visited by a priest at stated 
intervals. Then came a permanent organization, the dedication 
of the church took place 56 years ago and from that time the con- 
gregation has grown and flourished. The first resident pastor 
was Father Blake, who served for the long period of 35 years. 

There are a number of churches in the eastern part of the 
city where the colored residents of the city worship. The differ- 
ent denominations have able ami earnest pastors and much influ- 
ence is exerted and good accomplished by these churches. 

St. John's A. M. E. Church is located at the corner of Church 
and Monroe Streets and has a membership of 350. The church 
was organized over 50 years ago and some of the leaders in 
church history have been its pastors, several afterwards attaining 
the office of bishop. It is considered one of the leading churches 
of the Ohio A. M. E. Conference. 

The Zion Baptist Church is located on East Main Street and 
has a membership of about 350. It is one of the pioneer churches, 
having been organized over 60 years ago. A new building was 
erected ten years ago at a cost of $10,000. 

Other churches which are doing a splendid work among the 
colored citizens of the city are the Middle Run Baptist, Third 
Baptist, Free Will Baptist, Third M. E. Wesleyan, Christian and. 
A. M. E. 

V. M. C. A. AND SALVATION ARMY. 

The Young Men's Christian Association of Xenia has its, 
home at the corner of Market and Green Streets. Its spacious 
airy rooms are inviting haunts for the young men of the city who 
avail themselves of its generous privileges. There are 0QW 306 



A DESCRIPTION OF TUB COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. L53 

members. The Association was incorporated on fune [6, L884, 
when it was reorganized. Ground has been purchased in the rear 
of the present building on which a modern gymnasium building 
will be erected at an early date. This building will contain swim- 
ming pools, baths, gymnasium floor and running tracks. The 
Y. M. C. A. owes much to Mr. Eli Millm, one of the city's vener 
able citizens for whom the evening shadows arc rapidly lengthen- 
ing. For many years he furnished the Association a home in the 




Y. M. C. A. BUILDING. XENIA. 
Showing proposed new Gymnasium in rear. 

commodious building which il now occupies and his generosity 
has made it possible for it to become owner of the same. 

The Salvation Army has found much work in Xenia and is 
constantly aiding the sick, the discouraged, the fallen. When 
poverty and cold have come upon the poor of Xenia. the Army 
has been ready with free soup and other provisions and a big 
dinner for the children of the poor at Christmas time. And in 



154 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

the hot davs of the mid summer it has alleviated suffering by 
furnishing ice and milk to the suffering children of the city. With 
rare loyalty and without ceasing the band of faithful workers 
seeks new recruits in the work and aid for the needy. 
woman's clubs. 

Xenia bears the distinction of having the oldest woman's club 
in the United States. The Woman's Club of Xenia was organized 
in March 1867. Its first president was Airs. Henrietta Monroe, 
who with one other charter member, Mrs. George Ormsby, still 
holds her membership. A lecture course under the auspices of 
the Woman's Club was given during the winter of 1870. Paul 
Du Chaillu, Anna Dickinson, Theodore Tilton and George Ken- 
nan delighted Xenia audiences. Theodore Tilton, then in the 
zenith of his fame, was presented by Mrs. Barlow, president of 
the Club. He acknowledged the unexpected incident in a very 
complimentary way, saying 'it was the first time in all his experi- 
ence as a lecturer that he had had the honor and the pleasure to 
be introduced by a woman.' Parlor lectures and character im- 
personations followed at intervals, invited guests giving a social 
note to such meetings. The Club may be called a pioneer in liter- 
ary collaboration. In 1887 it was determined to make the 
unprecedented attempt to collaborate a story : each member con- 
tributed a chapter and the result was a delightful romance named 
"Our Novel." The passing years have brought many changes in 
Club membership but never interrupted its healthful, harmonious 
growth and its many avenues of influence have in no small degree 
stimulated the literary life of Xenia. 

The Junior Woman's Club is limited to a membership of 
twenty and is organized solely for literary purposes. It meets 
fortnightly at the homes of the members and has proven of much 
pleasure and profit. 

PATRIOTIC ORGANIZATIONS. 

The Catharine Greene Chapter, Daughters of the American 
Revolution, was organized at the home of the late Mrs. Betsy 
Kendall King, on East Main Street, December 16, 1894, with 
nineteen charter members. The Chapter now numbers in all 
sixty, the resident membership is limited to fifty, The object of 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 15S 

the organization is not only to perpetuate the memory of those 

\vln> achieved American Independence, but also to encourage 
patriotism and historical research. The graves of thirteen Revo 
lutionary heroes have been located in the county, direr of these 
have been marked by the Chapter and the others will be marked 
as soon as sufficient data have been obtained. At different times 
prizes have been given high school pupils for essays written on 
historical subjects. In 1906 the Chapter placed at ( Udtown a 
large bowlder, properly inscribed, commemorating the running of 
the gauntlet by Simon Kenton, also marking the location of tin- 
largest town of the Shawano Indians and their Council House. 
In the Carnegie Library the Chapter has been given space for a 
book-case owned by the Chapter and containing their contribution 
of sixty volumes of books or reference of historical value to which 
others will be added from time to time. 

The Lewis Post of the G. A. R. now has a membership of 
103. There was a time when the organization comprised 300 but 
the ranks of the veterans are being rapidly depleted and there are 
few recruits now 7 . The work falling from the shoulders of the old 
soldiers is being taken up by the more lusty Sons of Veterans 
(Albert Galloway Camp) of which Xenia supports a flourishing 
Camp. An important adjunct to the G. A. K. is that of Lewis 
Relief Corps, comprising 67 patriotic women of the city. The 
work of the Woman's Relief Corps along charitable lines deserves 
special mention. Lewis Corps has also placed flags in several 
of the public schools of the county. 

OTHER SOCIETIES. 

Xenia is rich in lodges and societies, nearly every prominent 
organization of the country having its society or branch lure. 
And among those for the betterment of the city may be mentioned 
the Commercial Club. It is composed of the representative busi- 
ness men of the city, its object being the worthy one of promoting 
the best interest of the city. 

The Xenia Driving Club has done much to cultivate a pride 
in fine horses. The Association was organized in 1901, its object 
being to furnish a clean sport for the citizens of Xenia and 



156 ORKKNE COUNTY 1865-190$. 

vicinity. Matinees are held every week throughout the season 
with several public race meetings. It is a member of the Ameri- 
can Trotting Association and numbers 110 members. 

MUSIC. 

X cnia can hardly be said as yet to have earned the distinction 
of being a musical city. However, she possesses a number of 
talented individual musicians who have received the best of home 
and foreign training. The AlcGervey Chorus, organized in 1902 
by the late F. E. McGervey as the Y. M. C. A. Chorus, gave 
annual concerts until the present year and had at one time about 
100 members. It is to be hoped that this organization will be 
continued. The S. of V. Band, led by Walter Curry, is about 
sixteen years old and its excellence is well known. It has played 
in various large cities of the country and has always been enthusi- 
astically received. The Xenia Military Band is a younger organ- 
ization which has already attained considerable proficiency. 

PUBLICATIONS. 

Three newspapers occupy the field in Xenia, the Gazette 
( daily and semi-weekly) and the Xenia Republican and the Xenia 
Herald ( weekly ) ; these are treated of in the Historical Sketch. 

A monthly publication of much note in the United Presby- 
terian church is that of The Woman's Missionary Magazine, 
issued from the job rooms of the Xenia Republican. The editors 
are Mrs. W. C. Hutchison and Mrs. George Moore; secretary, 
Mrs. H. C. Dean; and treasurer, Mrs. S. M. Kelso. Over eight 
thousand copies of the Magazine are printed each month. The 
July number, just issued from the press, contained the proceedings 
of the Woman's General Missionary Convention held at Pittsburg 
and for this one number alone over four tons of white paper were 
used. All the women connected with the work of issuing the 
Magazine give their services without compensation whatever. 

"Till-: EAST END," 

In the days of slavery Xenia was noted as one of the points 
along the line of the "underground railroad," that mysterious 
route over which the terrified and fleeing black people were aided 
by their sympathizers in many a daring midnight ride. (See 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 157 

the Historical Sketch i. Now the eastern part of the city is almosl 
wholly the home of the colored race. Wilberforce I University has 
attracted to this city hundreds of this race who came here in 
order to educate their children. Nave you ever taken a trip to 
the "East End?" There you may see the colored "mammy" in 
all the glory of her red bandana hankerchief forming her head 
gear, clean starched gingham apron, and a face from which radi 
ates good humor and peace with all the world. And there also 
may he found the "old fashioned'" darky, a gentleman of the old 
school, if you please, who was brought up to serve his master in 
the days "hefo' de Wah." Time, the great healer, has softened 
for him the hardships which he underwent in the days he spent 
below Mason & Dixon's line. The years that have rolled by haw- 
mellowed for him the hard places. The big plantations and the 
cotton fields all hold for him a romantic interest and he talks by 
the hour of the incidents of his life in the old days. There are 
few of the old timers left. A new generation has taken their 
place. They have the advantages of high schools and freedom of 
thought and speech and many of the colored youth of the city 
have made a success in many departments of life. They are seat 
tered all over the country. Go wdiere yon will, you will find a 
familiar dark face and the salutation: "From Xenia? 1 used in 
live there." 

WOODLAND CEMETERY. 

Out on Dayton Hill lies that other city. Woodland Cemetery. 
The green sward is kept in perfect order and those who visit the 
resting place of their loved ones will find Woodland more beau 
tiful than in the days of old. The cemetery comprises forty acre* 
and within it rest dead to the number of 6,818. 

Mill-: GREAT FLOOD. 
Affliction has come upon us on different occasions but the 
crowning calamity in the histor} of Xenia occurred on \la\ 12, 
1886. A terrific flood came on, in which the lives of 28 people 
were sacrificed. The storm occurred between eighl and nine 
o'clock at night. Shawnee, a tiny stream which passed through a 
populous part of the city, was converted by a cloud hurst into a 
torrent of water which descended like an avalanche upon the 




XENIA. Photos by W. P. MeKaj. 

The pillars at the cemetery entrance are those of the old court house. 



A DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTY AND ITS TOWNSHIPS. 159 

homes of man)' living in Barr's Bottoms. At ten o'clock the fire 
hells sounded the alarm and soon another alarm sounded. Dense 
darkness reigned everywhere but above the roar of the storm and 
surging waters could be heard the calls of those in distress, h 

was a night of wild terror and horror. I Inge bonfires were built, 
the shadows of which gave added awe to the scene. There were 
many heroic deeds performed that night in the efforts to save the 
drowning, the record of which would form thrilling chapters were 
it within the province of this brief sketch. Twenty houses were 
swept away in Barr's Bottoms, near the Little Miami depot, only 
three remaining. Orrin Morris and his wife and live children 
perished. The house hearing the family floated down the stream 
until it struck the solid masonry of a bridge and then all was still. 
Two children of the family were rescued. The next morning the 
sun came out bright and warm, disclosing a scene oi utter desola 
tion. For a time Xenia was cut off from all communication with 
the outside world. The office of the mayor was converted into 
a temporary morgue in which lay the bodies of the dead in somber 
array. Xenia has had many other calamities but none so greal 
in the loss of life as the great May Hood. 



We have been favored in many ways. Though tire and tl 1 

have scourged us, the people have never for an instanl lost faith 
in the divine guiding hand. At times we have seemed to have 
gone backward in the moral scale and wrong has triumphed over 
right hut through it all there has been an abiding faith of the 
people that what is for the best interests of the city will ultimately 
triumph. 

Much work for the good of the city has already been accom 
plished in the years just passed, hut there is still much to he done. 
The men and women who know Xenia as the "old home*' want to 
see it thrive and prosper and grow bigger and heller. So in this 
Home-Coming year we welcome them with glad hands, proud of 
our achievements in the past, humble in the thought that we 
might have done better, and hoping that in the da_\s to come we 
mav make more of our opportunities, that progress may ever 
mark our path. 



160 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



GREENE, THE CHAMPION LIVE-STOCK 
COUNTY. 

O. E. BRADFUTE. 

IN no one thing lias Greene County achieved greater success 
than in her live-stock interest. Equipped by nature with 
a most fertile soil which is productive of a great variety 
of grains in their best estate, having a rolling surface with 
abundance of water furnished by fine springs and magnificent 
streams, underlaid with limestone and clothed with blue grass 
not surpassed even by the famous Blue Grass region of Ken- 
tucky — it is little wonder that her people took early to growing 
high-class and improved live stock. When our grandfathers 
more than seventy years ago organized the County Fair, little 
did they dream that their grandchildren would he able to make 
a display of live stock, taken from within the county, the equal 
of which cannot be found in any other county in the nation. 
Indeed, the battle cry of the stockmen of the county has become, 
"Greene County Against the Earth." The county is acknowl- 
edged to be the foremost one in live stock in the State and the 
statement is frequently made that within the confines of Greene 
County can be seen more pure-blood registered live stock, of more 
kinds and of a higher class, than can be found in any like-sized 
spot on the globe. The writer has known as many as twenty 
different live-stock breeders to take their stock from this county 
to the Ohio State Fair and to bring home with them over $2,000 
in prizes on their horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. Nearly every 
man had a different kind or class of stock and each stood at the 
head of his class at that great fair. No other three counties 
combined in the State equal this county's animal winnings on live 



(tRI-KXK, THE CHAMPION LIVE-STOCK COUNTY. 161 

stock at the State Fair. Several of our stockmen make a business 
of exhibiting their fine stock at the greal fairs and live 
shows all over the United Stales and have established reputations 
which are not only national bul international. Each war pure 
blood live stock goes from this county to find homes in nearl) 
every state in the Union, and in countries across the seas. 

At the time of the World's Fair at St. Louis, in 1903, five 
of our live-stock men took their herds and flocks to be presenl 
at that great show and strive for the great prizes against the 
world. They brought home 140 prizes, of which about fifty 
were first prizes and championships, including some of the mo I 
important prizes given by the Fair. At the International Live 
Stock Show held annually at Chicago may always be seen a good 
representation of Greene County's noted stock, and each year is 
brought home at least one of the coveted championships of the 
show, sometimes two or more of them. A noted bull at the head 
of one of Greene County's herds has been three times champion 
at that great show — a record not equalled by any other bull, dead 
or alive, in America. Another bull which was bred in this 
county has a record almost equally good. What cattle man of 
either continent does not know of Lucy's Prince and Whitehall 
Sultan? A Greene County man* was one of the nine who 
organized the great Chicago show and is still on the board of 
directors. No county has been so well represented with officers 
and directors of the leading live-stock pedigree registry associa 
tions of America as Greene, having as many as fourteen officials 
in these various associations. 

Greene County boasts of several stables of fine horses; of 
great herds of Shorthorn. Aberdeen-Angus, Hereford. Red Poll, 
Polled Durham, Jersey, Polled Jersey, and Guernsey cattle; of 
fancy flocks of Merino, Oxford Down. Southdown, Shropshire 
Down, Cotswold, Hampshire Down, Lincoln, and Cheviot sheep ; 
of showy herds of Poland China, Chester White, Duroc Jersey, 
and Berkshire swine; to say nothing of many fancy flocks of 
poultry of various kinds. 

One hardly dares name a list of Greene County stockmen 

'.Mr. Bradfiite himself.— Ed. 



1G2 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



for fear of omitting names which should be given, yet some stand 
out s<> prominently as breeders of a State, national, and inter- 
national reputation that we venture to mention such names as 
Williamson, Watt, Turnhull, Kelly, Bradfute, Gerlaugh, Pollock, 
Bryson, Cherry, Cummins, Bickett, Foust, Lackey, Peterson, 
Creswell, Dobbins, Hawkins, Ankeney, Grinnell, Andrew, Jobe, 
Orr, Corry ; and many others might be given with equal propriety. 
The reader, when he returns to the old home, should not 
forget to visit his friends in the country and let them prove to 
him that old Greene has kept pace with the world and is the home, 
not only of some of the finest live stock, but also of some of the 
happiest and most prosperous people, on earth. 




INDIAN RIFFLiE BUIDUE. 



ANTIOCH COLLEGE. 



163 



ANTIOCH COLLEGE. 



JOHN M. DAVIDSON. 




HE history of Antioch College is of in- 
terest td every student of the history of 
education in America. The average 
citizen, even of Greene County, is per- 
haps unaware that the founding of this 
college and the formulation of its pol 
icy marked an epoch in the histor} of 
college education as truly as the public 
school system of Massachusetts, or- 
ganized by Horace Mann, marked the 
turning point in the education of the people's children in the 
grammar grades. Its importance lay in its frank democrac) as 
opposed to the aristocratic tendencies of earlier college policy. 

Antioch became non-sectarian at a time when nearly all col- 
leges and universities were under sectarian control, and when 
only three or four state universities were in existence. It abol 
ishd the color line at a time when the education of the negro was 
thought to he impolitic, if not dangerous. It established a scholar 
ship system for the education of those who otherwise would have 
been unable to secure college training, at a time when a college 
career was generally considered the prerogative of the children 
of fairly well-to-do parents able to spend money for die education 
of their children. Finally, Antioch became the firsl strictlj co 
educational college in the world. Oberlin, it is true, had befor< 
this admitted women to the same class room with men in some 
studies, hut, under the influence of Horace Mann. Antioch was 
the first college frankly to adopt the democratic polic) of pre 
serving absolute equality between men and women, both in the 
courses of study offered and in the requirements for graduation. 



ANTIOCH COLLEGE. 165 

Horace Mann, the greal reformer and democratizer of the 
American common school system, was the inspirer of much of the 
sentiment which broughl Antioch into existence, and for that 

reason was selected as its first president. Upon the day of his 
election to the presidency of Antioch. he was also nominated for 
the position of Governor of Massachusetts. lie declined tin- 
latter honor to take up the former. 

The college was organized by the members of the Christian 
denomination at a convention in Marion, X. Y., in 1850. It was 
incorporated in 1852, in which year Mann was elected president, 
and it was opened in 1853. No institution has ever attracted to 
its cause a more distinguished or notable body of supporters than 
did Antioch. Among the friends and helpers attracted by her 
ideals were numbered the best minds of the daw Emerson came 
out to lecture. Edward Everett Hale became a trustee. Horace 
Greeley. Bayard Taylor, Salmon ]'. Chase and others also came 
on to lecture and help. Among her constant friends were num- 
bered Chas. Sumner, Josiah Quincy, Theodore Parker, William 
Ellery Channing and Wendell Phillips. Great attention wad 
paid to the scholarly and original quality of the work done in the 
class room and but little towards the securing of new student-. 
Indeed many applicants for admission were turned away for lack 
of accommodation. 

Its history since that time has been one of many vicissitudes. 
Horace Mann died six years after his election to the presidency 
and was succeeded by Dr. Thomas Hill, who was called from 
Antioch to the presidency of Harvard University in 1862. The 
war closed the college doors for two years and crippled the insti- 
tution financially and numerically to such an extent that its 
prospects for usefulness and influence, which had been so brilliant 
under the administration of Mann, were for some time consider- 
ably impaired. It did not. however, prevent the college from 
preserving its democratic and independent ideals, and keeping up 
its steady, conscientious, and thoroughly scholarly work. 

Its output of men who have made places for themselves in 
the world of scholarship and letters has been entirely dispropor- 
tionate to tli3 numbers sent out. Pres. G. Stanley Hall, of Clark 



166 GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 

University, the late Prof. Langley, of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, Franklin \Y. Hooper, founder and head of the Brooklyn 
Institute y^i Arts and Sciences, Amos R. Wells, editor and author, 
Dr. George II. Shull, biologist for the Carnegie Institute, Bergen, 

the botanist, and others are typo of the kind of men that have 
had their training at Antioch. Original and independent thought 
and creative work have been almost uniformly characteristic of 
her successful students, and constitute a striking evidence of the 
persistence of the democratic and independent spirit which char- 
acterized its first president and brought about its foundation. 

Under the leadership of Dr. S. D. Fess, who was called in 
1906 to the presidency oi Antioch from the University oi Chicago, 
the college has entered upon a career oi new promise. It is 
growing steadily in the number of its students, has strengthened 
its faculty, and is broadening its activities and sphere of useful- 
ness. Not. perhaps, since the days of the first president of the 
college have the prospects for a large and vigorous institution 
been so brilliant. Improvements gradually are being added: the 
college has enrolled about three hundred students tills year! 1' 
and the Antioch Chautauqua furnishes instruction and recreation 
for visitors from all parts of southwestern Ohio. In short. An- 
tioch seems surely to have come into her own. 

A word should be said about the buildings and location. The 
campus faces the glen on the Neff Grounds. It comprises per- 
haps ten or fifteen acres, covered by beautiful trees of many 
varieties, most of which were set out under the direction of 
Horace Mann. The main building is one of the most dignified 
and beautiful buildings in the count}', and has a perfect landscape 
setting. It is in the form oi a cross, one hundred and seventy 
feet long, with a tran>ept oi one hundred and ten feet. It is 
three stories high, besides the basement, and contains the library, 
laboratories, museum and class rooms besides the chapel. Near 
by stand two dormitories, and at the entrance to the campus 
stands the president's house. 

The distracting elements which go with a large place 
are missing. "Plain living and high thinking" is the expression 
which perhaps characterizes best the educational spirit of Antioch. 



CEDARVILLE COLLEi -E 



L67 



CEDARVILLE COLLEGE. 



I'. A. TURK AT 




ED \RVILLE College is one of the in 
stitutions of higher education under 
the c< uitrol oi the ( General Syn< >d o i 
the Reformed I 'resbyterian Chi 
The college was chartered in 1887, 
and alter a delay of several years, \\;i- 
opened f< >r instructs m mi Septemb :r 
19, 1894, in the mansion formerly own 
ed by Rev. Hugh McMillan, where he 
conducted an academy half a century 
ago. In tin- Following year the present building was erected and 
opened, both campus and building being tin- gifl of generou 
friends. The college speedily look high rank, as is evidenced by 
the fact that although its oldesl graduates are -till young men. 
they have taken prominenl positions in their various professions. 
I he income of the college consists of tuition fees, collections 
from congregations, voluntary subscriptions and offerings fron 
friends within and without tin- church, and interi I of the en 
dowmenl funds. Tin- practical origin of die college was due i" 
tlic liberality of William Gibson, of Cincinnati, who bequeathed 
$25,000 a-, a foundation, in memory of hi- father, Peter Gibson, 
for many years a prominent member and ruling elder in the Cin 
cinnati 1\. I'. congregation. A fevs years later, Roberl M. 
Cooper, an elder in the Cedarville l\. !'. congregation, bequeathed 
a two-thirds interesl in hi- farm, and John R. Lyons, of Marissa, 
Illinois, gave $500 a- a memorial for hi- -on. James Burney 
Lyons, who sacrificed hi- life in the Civil War. In 1905 Mr. 
and Mr-. < i. \V. Harper, of Cedarville, gave $5,000 to found and 
maintain a chair in Finance and Economics, provided the friend- 



1 68 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



of the college should raise a similar amount. The money, includ- 
ing $1,000 from the rlon. Whitelaw Rerd, was raised, and the 
chair was instituted two years later. 

The college plant consists of three buildings; the main build- 
ing he lore mentioned, the gymnasium, and the library. The 
gymnasium, formerly the R. 1*. church building, was presented 
to the college by Mr. W. J. Alford as a memorial to his parents. 




CEDARVILLE COLLEGE. 

Rev. and Mrs. John Alford, and was renamed the Alford Memo- 
rial. In 1906 Andrew Carnegie presented the college $11,790 to 
build a library. This building is Hearing completion, and is one 
of the ornaments of the town. It is free to the public. 

The present faculty consists of David McKinney, D. D., 
President; W. R. McChesney, I'h. 1).. Gibson Professor of An- 
cient Languages; F. A. Jurkat, A. M., Modern Languages and 
History; J. R. Fitzpatrick, A. M., Mathematics and Science; 
Edith Morris, A. IT, German and English; Leroy Allen, Ph. I'.., 



CEDARVILLE COLLEGE. 



169 



Harper Professor of Sociology and Economics; Mrs. fessic Rus- 
sell, Music; and Frank S. Fox, A. M., Elocution. 

The graduates to date number ninet) seven. The number 
of students since the third year of the college has averaged aboul 
<>nc hundred. 

Fhe collegiate courses offered are two, the classical and the 
philosophical, leading to the degrees of A. B. and Ph. I'., re- 
spectivel) . 




CARNEGIE LIBRARY, CEDARVILLE COLLEGE. 

Among the students' societies may be mentioned the two 
literary societies, the Philadelphian and the Philosophic, the Y. 
M. C. A., the Athletic Association, and the Gavel Club. The 
latter, formed originall) to train its members in parlimentary law, 
manifests itself most prominently in publishing the college paper, 
the ( ravelyte. 

The college has exerted a profound influence upon the com- 
munity, and in return is thankful that it has such fertile soil to 
grow in. 



THE o. S AXIi S O. iH >\H' 



171 



THE O. S. AND S. O. HOME. 



K. C. BARNES, KMTOR OF THE HOME WEEKLY. 




HE Nome for orphans of the soldiers 
and sailors of Ohio is located on the 
brow of a hill standing a mile south 
of Xenia. It is an institution to 
which the people of Xenia are proud 
to point as the home of the children of 
the State's war veterans, a large allot- 
ment <>f which were furnished b) 
( ireene Comity. 

The Home is reached by traction 
and by drive, at the terminus of Home Avenue standing some 
forty odd buildings, erected to care for those left dependent by 
the ravages of the Rebellion and the late Spanish-American con 
Hid. 

Tire Home farm comprises nearly three hundred acres of 
good land, a large part of which is under cultivation. It is situ- 
ated in one of the besl agricultural districts of the Slate, and 
much of the provision for the children is raised on the land. I he 
dairy is one of the important parts of the farm, a herd of thirty 
Holsteins furnishing milk for the institution. The floristry dc 
partment is also an important branch connected with the farm. 

There are between seven and eight hundred children re i 
dents of this beautiful Nome, about evenly divided between the 
sexes. The cottage plan is used, twenty-five children in a cottage, 
presided over by a matron. The life is as mar ideal as can he 
made, everything being done to make surroundings as home lik< 
as p< issible. 

Special Stress is put upon the need of education, and the 



THE (). S. AND S. o. IIo.MIv. 17:; 

schools arc in charge of a recognized educator and a corps of 
excellent instructors. The child is given an education in the 
grammar grades and high scho< 1 and when he leaves, is fitted 
with a knowledge of the chief branches, and has had his years 
spent here tilled with the mind-training so essential when he 
leaves to battle against the outside world. 

At the age of 14 each boy and girl is required to learn some 
trade. Of the choices offered gills, the domestic economy course- 
includes instruction in cutting and fitting and cooki lg, the tail r 
ing room is open to them, and the stenography and telegraphy 
departments are open to both boys and ,^irls. The boys may 
learn electrical engineering (which includes a school of mechani 
cal drawing), blacksmithing, plumbing, printing, gardening, shoe- 
making, painting, barbering, tinning; and from the machinists' 
department a number of excellent workmen are sent out every 
year. 

Each of these departments is fitted with the best of machin- 
ery and material, and under the supervision of an instructor or 
foreman the boys and girls are permitted to learn the latest and 
most improved manner of carrying on the work. 

The hospital is in charge of Dr. W. C. Hewitt, who devotes 
his time to the work. lie resides in the main hospital and has 
under his charge four wards, each in charge of a trained nurse. 
A thing for which the people are grateful is the interest shown 
by the prominent physicians and surgeons, who volunteer to come 
to the institution at any time the emergency requires. The Vol- 
unteer Consulting and Visiting Staff o insists of eighteen of tin- 
best physicians and surgeons in the Stale. 

The boys of the Home are organized into the I Ionic Battalion 
consisting of four companies, thirteen officers and 281 cadets, and 
the drill and parades give the Nome a military appearance. 
There are 30 pieces in the hand, and they discourse -^wn-i music 
on all special < >ccasi< ins. 

At Christmas time, the glee of the little ones is beyond the 
description of words, as they receive their kindly remembrances 
from the Grand Army, the Woman's Relief Corps and the United 
Spanish-American War Veterans. The day is never forgotten 



THE o. S. AND S. o. IK ).\IF.. 17.' 

by one who sees the children come into the large dining room am! 
partake of a huge turkey dinner. 

.Memorial Day is the most impressive on.' of the whole year. 
The children have exercises in the morning for the dead that are 
buried in the little necropolis by the chapel, and in the afternoon 
the battalion takes part in the services of the < i. A. R. in Xenia. 
Few people who attend the memorial exercises in the little house 
of worship can go away with dry eyes. 

The children are given a month's vacation during the sum 
mer. provided they have a place to go, and in July the institution 
is visited hv a number of her former inmates. This annual re- 
union of the Ex-Pupils' Association brings together some of the 
representative men of Ohio and from other states, who look- to 
the institution as the "cradle of their infancy" and point with 
pride to the six thousand men and women who have gone lion 
the home to occupy places in the professional and commercial 
intercourses of life. These reunions show the high standard of 
citizenship which the State of ( >hio boasts as recompense for the 
large appropriations given for the support of the Home. 

The Home has brought many men prominent in national and 
state affairs to Xenia, and has from time to time been the gather 
ing place for officials of the Department of ( )hio G. A. I\. 

Hon. R. B. Hayes, afterwards governor of Ohio, and presi 
dent of the United States, was very instrumental in the organiza 
tion of the institution in 1869 and 1870. Hon. J. Warren Keifer, 
present congressman from the Eighth Ohio District was another 
of the ones who were instrumental in its organization. The first 
children gathered together to form an orphans' home which after- 
wards resulted in the present grand institution, were in charge oJ 
the Grand Army of the State and numbered about eighty. They 
were governed, clothed and cared for by a committee from the 
G. A. R. This first Board of Control was composed of 1'. I'. 
Ingalls. 11. G. Armstrong, George 1'.. Wright, I'.. F. Coates, James 
Barnett, Eli Milieu. G. W. Collier, and M. S. Gunckel and Mrs. 
Lucy Webb Haves, wife of Governor Hayes. Mrs. Henrietta I .. 
Monroe, of Xenia. and Mrs. Rachel White, of Springfield. 

From thai first Board to the present time, the men who have 
governed the institution have been among Ohio's distinguished 
sons. Col. I. L. Smith is in charge of the Home as superin- 
tendent and Mr. T. 1. Collins is the financial officer. 



WILBERFi IRCE UNIVERSITY 



L79 



WILBKRFORCE UNIVERSITY. 



PRESIDENT JOSHUA II. JONES. 




[E germinal spirit thai gave origination 
to Wilberf* rce University existed sev 
eral years bef< re il t< ok tangible- form; 
but in due time that spirit bore it > full 
fruit and Wilberforce University was 
given birth as a -eat of learning for the 
black people of the United Stale-. 

On September 2\. 1844, the ' >hio 
Conference of the A. M. E. Church 
appointed a committee for the purpose 
of -electing a site for a seminary of learning for the Negro people. 
This committee -elected 172 acre- twelve mile- west of Columbus, 
Ohio, on the old National Road. Tin- property was purchased 
and Union Seminar} was projected there in the name of the Afri- 
can Methodist Episcopal Church. 

On September 28, 1853, the Cincinnati Conference of the M. 
E. Church appointed a committee whose duty it was to select a 
site for the establishment of a literary institution of higher order 
for the education of the colored people. That committee recom- 
mended that "Taw aw a Springs," a beautiful summer resorl in 
Greene County, ( )hio, he purchased for the aforesaid purpose and 
in May. 1856, the purchase was consummated and a school of 
higher learning was established, to be known a- Wilberforce I ni 
ver-itv. Idle University was incorporated in August 30, 1856, 
and a Hoard of _'4 Trustees was -elected, including Governor 
Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. Dr. R. S. Rust of the M. E. Church. 
Ashland Keith of the Colored Baptist denomination, and Rishop 
Daniel A. Payne of the A. M. E. Church. The broad principle 
adopted for the future guidance of the University was that. 



WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY 181 

"There should never be any distinction among the trustees, faculty 
or students i n account of race, creed or color." 

The University began its work in October, 1856, under the 
principalship of Rev. M . P. Gaddis. lie was succeeded by Prof. 
James K. Parker, and he by Doctor Richard S. Rust. During 
these early days many friends and sympathizers were found foi 
the University but much to the chagrin of those who were leading 
in this enterprise the Civil War. which had already become immi 
nent, broke ou1 and the life of the LJniversity was put in greal 
peril and finally its doors were closed and the M. E. Church with 
drew from the held. On March 10. 1863, Bishop Daniel \. 
Payne purchased the property for $10,000 in the name of the 
African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the old Union Seminary 
farm near Columbus, Ohio, (referred tcrabove) was sold and the 
proceeds, faculty and pupils were merged into Wilberforce Uni- 
versity and a new career in the life of Wilberforce began. 

In the early struggles of the University, Bishop Payne asso 
ciated with him Rev. James A. Shorter and Prof. John G. 
Mitchell. During the thirteen years that Bishop Payne was Pres 
ident, 1553 attended the University and 26 of them graduated. 

Rev. B. F. Lee succeeded Bishop 1). A. Payne as President 
in the year 1876. Me served in that position for eight years 
during which time 117'' students attended the University and 11 
graduated, ddie growth of the institution under President Lee 
was steady and healthful in all lines. In 1884 Presidenl Pee 
accepted the editorship of the Christian Recorder, Philadelphia. 

In 1884 Prof. S. T. .Mitchell was elected President and the 
growth of the University along all lines continued at a very rapid 
rate. During his presidency 2,924 students attended school at 
Wilberforce and 459 graduated. In 1900 President Mitchell re 
signed the presidency and look the chair of mathematics in the 
I "niversity. 

In 1900 Lev. Joshua II. Jones was elected President of Wil 
berforce University and has served for eight years and is -till 
incumhent. ( President Jones's tenure of office terminated since 
this article was written, in June. 1908, and at present Prof. Scar- 
borough is Acting President.— Ed.) Under hi- administration 



WIU'.Kkl i >RCE UNIVERSITY. L83 

the I niversity has continued to grow along all lines and is accom 
plishing much for humanity. During his administration 1-673 
have attended the University and 495 haw graduated. 

The departments of the University embrace the College, 
fheological, Normal and Industrial Departments. The courses 
taught are the Collegiate, Scientific. Law. Music. Theological, 
Academic, Normal, Art, Business, Shorthand and Typewriting, 
Military Science and Tactics, as literary courses— twelve in all; 
to these are added shop-work in in in. plumbing, tailoring, dress 
making, millinery, cooking, shoemaking, printing, blacksmithing 
ami carpentry, as industrial courses or trades courses. In the 
twelve literary courses, we seek to prepare students in the educa- 
tive arts; in the ten industrial courses, we strive to prepare stu- 
dents in the occupative arts. Wilber force University, therefore, 
aims at the double purpose: first, spiritual enlargement; second, 
industrial efficiency. These twenty-two courses, including the 
various departments, comprise the breadth of die University's 
operations. From the founding of the University until now 
11,351 students have attended the University and 1,021 have grad 
uated from the various departments up to this time. These 
graduates and undergraduates have gone into all parts of tin- 
world helping in the work' of human amelioration, taking rank in 
the world of service and letters by the side of the besl Negro 
graduates of any school in the United Stales, 'fhe teachers and 
preachers of our race sent out by Wilberforce University stand in 
the front ranks of the intellectual, moral and industrial leaders 
of Our 'country. Tuskegee Institute, Hampton tnslitute, Howard 
University and a score of similar institutions as well as high 
schools, normal schools and grammar schools throughout the 
nation have felt the force and influence of Wilberforce I niversity 
through her graduates who teach in them. 

Some of the best teachers in Wilberforce University are her 
own graduates and some of the ablest preachers in the connection 
are the theological graduates of the University who have -one 
out to do honor to themselves ami their Alma Mater. It is i 
worhty that Msikinya Maxeke, Charlotte Maine Ma\cke. Charles 
Dube, Adelaide Tantsi-Dube, James Y. Tantsi, Thomas E. Warde 



WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY. 185 

and EC. S. E. [nsiadoo are hard at work in far-away Africa bring 
ing honor to themselves, our race and our beloved Wilberforce. 
Special mention should be made of Rev. Peter Alpheus Luckie 
who, after graduation, returned to British Guiana and founded 
al Ins native home The Demarara Missionary and Industrial 
Institute. Many arc the worthy of this great institution who 
deserve mention, bul time forbids. 

In 1887 the representatives of Wilberforce University wenl 
before the Legislature at Columbus, Ohio, and requested the 
State of Ohio to aid in the maintenance of the educational work 
at Wilberforce University by establishing a department at the 
University, and by the concurrent action of the Legislature and 
the Trustees of the University the Combined Normal and Indus 
trial Department was established at Wilberforce and by continued 
concurrent action of the Legislature and the Trustees this depart 
ment has been fostered by the Stale to the great good of the Uni 
versity at large, the citizenship of the United States in general 
and the Negro race in particular. The Legislature of Ohio has 
been generous, and only unborn generations will be able to estimate 
the enormous good that is being accomplished by the State at this 
institution for the black man and for the body politic through the 
betterment of Negro citizenship. 

The University includes three great departments: < 1 > The 
Theological Department which is supported by the African Meth 
odist Episcopal Church, purely and simply; (2) the Collegiate 
Department which is supported by contribution- from the African 
Methodist Episcopal Church and philanthropic lovers of educa 
lion; (3) the Combined Normal and Industrial Department which 
is supported by the State of ( )hio. The property of the Theolog 
ical Department is valued at $14,000; the property of the Col 
legiate Department, including endowments, is valued at $233,000; 
the property of the Combined Normal and Industrial Department 
i- valued at $220,000; making the -rand total valuation S I", ,000. 

The entire cost to a -indent for tuition, board, room rent and 
fuel, at the University doe- nol exceed Si 17.50 per year. Wilber 
force University is the best place for the education of Negro< 
be found in the United State-. The University is educative and 
Christian in all of its bearings. 



THE XENIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 



18' 



THE XENIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 



PRESIDENT WILLIAM G. M( )( IK' EHEAD. 




I I IS institution is one of the oldest of its 
kind on the continent, perhaps the very 
oldest. ( hying to the urgent need of a 
ministry trained in our own country 
and the inability of the mother church 
in Scotland to send sufficient help, die 
Associate Presbyterian church in 
America was led to establish a theo- 
logical school where men might he 
trained for the ministry of the Gospel. 
Accordingly at Service, in Mercer County, Pa., the Seminary was 
established which remains to this day in full vigor of Christian 
activity. This took place in 1794 when Washington was Presi- 
dent for the second time. In a little log house, with a library 
quite extensive for those days, with a single professor, Dr. John 
Anderson, a Scotchman by birth, a graduate of I ilasgow I niver- 
sity, a man of distinguished gifts but eccentric and absent-minded 
to a degree, the first Protestant theological seminary west ol Phila 
delp'hia, perhaps the first in the whole land, began its career, and 
it has continued its beneficent work now for 114 years, with no 
interruption in its sessions and no cessation of instruction. In 
1821 it was removed from Service to Canonsburg, Pa., and From 
thence it was transferred to Xenia, Ohio, its present location, in 
1855. 

Its first home in Xenia was in the building on Wesl Main 
street now known as die '•.Miami Flats," which was erected for 
its special use; it was afterwards housed in the old Seminary 



JL88 



GREENE COUNTY 1803-1908. 



structure on West Third street, which is at present the dormitory 
for students, a fine new building having' been erected recently to 
accommodate the growing needs of the institution. Its library, 
small at the beginning, has been added to until now it contains a 
carefully selected collection of hooks that in quality of theological 
usefulness can not easily be surpassed. 




NEW BUILDING. XENIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. Photo by Canbj 

Dormitory showing slightly in the right. 



( >ne hundred years ago, the curriculum of study was limited 
almost exclusively to the single branch of Biblical Theology, to 
which study gradually were added studies embracing Church 
History and the original languages in which the Bible was given, 
viz., Hebrew and Greek. Now some fourteen departments are 
conducted each session covering the held of theological education. 



Till; XENIA THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 189 

At its annual meeting in May of this year the Board of Managers 
established a permanent lectureship of Biblical Theolog} as illus- 
trated by Archaeological Research, and it elected Dr. M. ( i. Kyle, 
of Philadelphia, to this new chair. Prof. Kyle will nol ti 
during the entire session, but will give a series of lectures on the 
subject above-mentioned at a time to be agreed upon. This is 
mentioned to indicate that it is the aim of those in charge of the 
institution to equip it with every advantage that can be secured. 

Nearly one thousand students have received their theological 
education, in whole or in part, within its walls, and its alumni 
may be reckoned at about nine hundred. It has its suns scattered 
over our bread land from New England to the Pacific slope. 
Its graduates are found in the foreign mission field, in the Punjab, 
India, in Egypt, and in the Sudan. ( hie of the graduates of two 
years ago, Elbert McCreery, is now toiling in the torrid heal of 
the Egyptian Sudan, at Khartum, that the light of the glorious 
Gospel may shine into the darkened minds of that heathen popu 
lace, lie is hut one of a number of others engaged in the like 
blessed work. 

Four regular professors devote their time to instruction, 
Profs. Joseph Kyle, Jesse Johnson, John E. Wishart, and William 
( i. Moorehead. Prof. M. ( i. Kyle will he a fifth, besides tutor- 
in the Greek language who are employed nearly every session. 
Twelve young men graduated at the last commencement, Ma\ 
6, who are already under appointment to various held-; one will 
go in the early autumn to India, one to the destitute white- ol 
die Kentucky Mountain-, one to the new State of Oklahoma, 
and the others to various places. Two of these young men i 
to us from distant parts of the world, one, Mr. Alexander Reese, 
from Xew Zealand, and the other. Air. Hormizd Sleman. from 
Van in Turkey. Both of these expeel to become foreign mis- 
sionaries. 

A visit to the Seminar)- during the Home-Coming time will 
he greatly appreciated by the faculty, who will welcome friends 
and explain to them the Raised Map of Palestine of the Expl< ra 
lion Expedition, a unique map indeed. 



190 GREENE COUNTV 1803-1908. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE GREENE COUNTY 
HOME COMING ASSOCIATION. 



Executive Committee — J. F. Orr, Chairman; Dr. A. C. 
Messenger, Vice Chairman; Austin Patterson, Secretary; Mar- 
shall Wolf, Treasurer; Prof. E. I!. Cox. Harry D. Smith. S. O. 
Hale. 

Committee on Promotion, Publicity and Printing — ■ 
Dr. A. C. Messenger, Chairman; William Brennan, C. L. Jobe, 
R. S. Kingsbury, J. H. Whitmer. Ladies' Auxiliary Com- 
mittee — Miss Helen Rend. Airs. Carrie Geyer, Miss Carrie 
Hypes, Miss Alary Maxwell, Miss Lucy Richardson. 

Finance Committee — M. L. Wolf, Chairman; George Gal- 
loway. II. E. Schmidt, Judge Marcus Shoup, George R. Kelly. 

Committee ox Accommodations and Facilities — Harry 
D. Smith, Chairman ; Fisk Alexander. Jacob Kany, S. B. Le- 
Sourd, John Prugh. 

Committee on Program and Decoration — S. O. Hale, 
Chairman ; Dr. W. A. Galloway, G. J. Graham, C. F. Howard, 
T. J. Kennedy. 

( oMMITTEE ON SOCIETIES AND ORGANIZATIONS Prof. E. B. 

Cox, Chairman; M. A. Broadstone, William Neeld, John A. 
Xishet. B. Schlesinger, Judge H. L. Smith, W. F. Trader. 

Souvenir Book Committee — Austin Patterson, Chairman; 
J. M. Davidson, Mrs. H. H. Eavey, Marshall Lupton. Mrs. Wil- 
liam Wilson. 

Committee ox Relics — J. F. Jones. Chairman; L. F. Clev- 
enger, George Fetz, Mrs. George Fetz, George Greiner, Airs. 
Katharine Landaker, Miss Jessa Pearson. 

Committee of Colored Citizens — J. M. Somers, Chair- 
man; Rev. George Coble, R. F. Holmes, Jordan Rohh, W. S. 
Rogers. 



THE FIRMS and individuals whose places of 
business arc shown on the following pages are 
to be regarded, not as advertisers, but rather 
as patrons who have made it possible for the com 
mittee to present an additional number of interesting 
Greene County views. However, we think it not out 
of place to remind our readers that our commerce, as 
here represented, reaches far beyond the limits of the 
county and that many persons living in larger cities 
than Xenia have found advantage in purchasing from 
us. 



XENIA. 




The Xenia National Bank. PUoto 

( (Hirers and I >irectors : 
C. C. Shearer, President. I>. M. Stewart, Vice President. 

A. S. Prazer, Cashier. J<>'"> A. Nisbet, Asst. Cashier. 

H. M. Barber, George Little, W. D. Wright. 

193 




- = s 

C fc 5_ 



X ■- - 

/ — 

- ~ t> 



■i. U -J 



/ — 

u a 2 




illl 




O M 




J H 



41 b 



~ u 




200 




jnl 




H. E. SCHMID1 v l 

g - eat. 







European Motel, ' 

.". and 7 South I »e1 roit Si f. II. Berry, I 'i ■ ipi 







Join-: Brothers & Co., Photo by Downing 

21, 23 and 25 East Alain Street, 
Dry Goods and Millinery. Ladies' Suits, Cloaks and Shoes. 



ZOi 




Nesbitt & Weaver, 

Clothing and Men's Furnishings, 

13 East Main Street. 



Downing 



21 15 




II AI.I.KK. I [ATXES & HlGGIXS, 

Men's Clothing and Furnishing 
33 East Main Street. 



Photo by Downing 




/ 



WATER FITTING 



' I 



k 





PLUMBING 




The J. I'. line k 1.1:1 t Svpply Co., 
Plumbing, Gas and Steam Fitting. Dealers in Mill and Thresher Supplies. 

H5 Wesl Main St., Xenia, I >hio. 



go; 





Women's Department . 

Koch's Sample Shoe Store, 

Xenia's largest shoe store. Factory sample shoes. 

31 and 33 South Detroit St. 




Men's Department. 

21 18 



Photos by Canby. 







*» ^JB EL ■ ^vtg^p* -^. * 


!t^3Pl! 






... 1 ip i 









John T. I'ar -i;i i . 
• Cor. Whiteman and Railroad Sis.. 
Dealer in nil kinds of Lumber, Lath and SI 




John T. Barxett i\: I 
Cor. Washington St. and Ho 
Manufacturers and dealers in Hard Wood Lumber. 



i 




F. ). II. Schell, Jeweler, Steele Building. 



l-hoto by Canb; 




Diamonds, Watches, Jewelry and Sterling Silver, 
Kodaks and Kodak Supplies. 




The Springfield Pike Pumping Station. 

The Xexia Water Co., 28 \. Detroit St. 

I )fficers and Dirctors : 

George Little. President. John 0. McCormick, Vice President. 

Geo. P. Cooper, Sec'y and Treas. 

John A. Nisbet. M. L. Wolf. 




The Cincinnati Pike Pumping Station. 
211 



: . Canh.v 




View iu re. ept 



DOWNING'S ART STUDIO. 

XENIA, OHIO. 




One of the finest and host equipped galleries in the state. 
212 




The Sutton Music Store, 
11) Green St.. Xenia, O. 




Pianos, Phonographs, Sheet Music, Records, 

Piano and Organ Tuning and Rebuilding. 

Picture Framing. 



bj Conb; 



213 




C. E. Arbosrust. 



ARBOGUST c\: CO. Photo by Canby 

7 West Alain Street, Allen Building. 

Milliners. Airs. E. M. Whittinyton. 




II. IT. Thrall, Tin-; Druggist. 
4-3 East Alain Street, Xenia, Ohio. 




Donges' Drug Store 
Corner Detroit and Second Streets. 
Conceded to be one of the finest drug stores in Southern Oh 




Robert II. Snead, 21 Green St. Phoio»b y u tng 

Natural Gas Fitting and Plumbing. Gas and Electric Supplies. 

215 




'« 



' 



L. S. BARNES & Co. Photo by Canby. 

No. 4 Green Street. Interior Decorators 



KEYES & NESBITT 




Keyes & Xksiutt. 

Shoes. 

No, 11' North Detroit Street., Xenia, Ohio. 



Photo by Downing. 



il6 




Ida S. Si.nz. 

Millinery, 

Steele Building, West Main St. 



K.wy. Tm Tailor, 

No. 10 North Detroit Street. 



IfflTi il 


SOif^^Hl 




^*inily|jg 




^^j 








217 




John A. North, 

30 West Main Street. 

House heating by the celebrated Guerney system. 

Sanitary plumbing. 



Photo by Canhy. 




The Central Electric Supply Co., 

Garage, 

118 vS. Detroit St., Xenia, O. 

218 



Photo by Downii 




F. P. Baldner. Baldneb & Fletcher, J. M. Fletcher 

4-2 East Main St. 
Steam and Hot Water Heating. Tin and Iron Roofing and Spouting. 




( isi i K i.v Millinery 

37 (riven St 1 1 







W. 0. Maddux & Co., 

Dealers in Cement, Lime, Sewer Pipe and Coal. 

Local Agent for C. C. & B. Pocahontas Coal. 

Cor. Detroit and 1 1 ill Sts., Xenia, 0. 



Phut,, by Canby. 




Johnson & Dean, 
Funeral Directors. 



Photo by Downi 



Both Phones 68. 



22 E. Market St. 







m 



S. B. LeSourd, LeSourd & Smith, Attys, 

S|i('ci.-il Adjuster. Collectors. 

S. B. LeSous d & Co., 

Fire, Life and Cyclone Insurance 

Thirty years in the insurance business in Xenia. 

No. 6 X. Detroit St., Steele Building. 







R. S. Kingsbury, 
Finest Ready-to-Wear Clothing, 
John B. Sins,, n Hats, Manhattan Shirts 

50 and 52 E. Main St., Xenia, 1 1. 



221 




C. vS. Frazer, 
Good Shoes. 17 East Alain St. 



Mioto by Canby 




I-:. II. Hunt, 
39 West Main Street. 
Bicycles, Motorcycles, Guns and Amunitioi 
Light repair work. Auto tire repairing. 

222 



l'li,, i., bj Downing 




Frank B. Scott, 

25 South Detroit Street, 

Sheet Metal Work, Heating and Ventilating, 

Tin, Galvanized Iron, Slate and Tile Roofing, Cornice and 

.Metal Ceilings, Warm Air Furnaces. 




Wright & Carri thi rs, 

I fealers in all kinds i .1 coal. 

Office, 27 S. Detroit St. Yard, S. Whiteman St 

223 







Thomas M. Moore, 

Funeral Director. 

34 East Market Street. 



Photo by Canbj 




TIN & SLATE ROOFING 



SPOUTING 

& Warm Air 
Furnaces 





C. C. Henrie, 

Twenty years in business. 
52 West Main Street. 



224 



NEW JASPER. 



L&. A 






y --i iSfei^CT 




Wf. 



Geo. W. Slusher, 

General Merchandise, Butter, Eggs and Poultry, 

W-w Jasper, < )hio. 






XENIA TOWNSHIP. 




Scene at Oak Lawn Farm, April L'3. 1008, during annual sale of fine horses 
\V. B. Bryson & Sons Proprietors. 

5 



D-4 



^ 



226 













































/dobps 3ROT 1 rs\ 
I i [BRAitt 5IN0IMG I i' 'NO J 

\^ >i t;..,'js::v£. ■;;. ^/ 



SEP "*• 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

I ii ii i 



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